Kids and parents often pick sports without researching the probability of playing that sport at the college or professional level. Statistics are often shocking to parents. Field Hockey may be fun where you live, but there may not be any colleges withing a state or two that play the sport. If your daughter wants to stay close to home, there may not be any options. Everything can’t be planned down to the most minute detail, that keeps life from being enjoyable. There is a balance. The NCAA has for many years kept excellent statistics on all things sport. If your kids is thinking about playing in college, here are the numbers. The NCAA Probability of Competing in College Sports Article. Here are few observations.
DI – divided into two groups, there are the power five conferences, and non-power five, power five conferences are more difficult to get scholarships, but the power five is not necessarily more difficult to gain admittance, Ivy League does not have athletic scholarships.
DII – there are many programs that need players from excellent academic schools.
NAIA – not mentioned in the survey, as with DII, many programs that need players from excellent academic schools.
DIII – no money here specifically for playing a sport.
Basketball / Volleyball – high number of college participants and college programs, by far the lowest number of HS participants make it to the college level, both sports are national, hard to find a college without basketball, this opens up options everywhere.
Tennis / Softball / – classic girls sports, tennis popularity in the US has crashed, west and south are the remaining strongholds for both sports.
Lacrosse / Field Hockey / Ice Hockey – all three are on the rise for women as well as all three being primarily north and east sports
Swimming / Water Polo – similar to Tennis, these are primarily east and west coast sports.
Golf – nation wide, many colleges in power five and not, a good number of scholarships
Track and Field / Cross Country – nation wide as with basketball, more schools have Track and Field than any other sport, driving the high numbers, both are relatively inexpensive sports.
Soccer – will probably overtake Track and Field as the largest number of colleges with the sport, nation wide.
The Numbers
Make certain you look over all of the numbers, there are several other reports and notes on this page, most important is the one stating that many of the sports have few high schools with official programs, as such, these numbers are low as kids participate in club teams. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) is the national governing body for high school sports in the US, NFHS has nothing to do with sports that are played as a club sport due not having enough schools in a particular state with official high school programs. Hockey, lacrosse, water polo, swimming, field hockey, golf, and tennis often fall into this category. While the hockey numbers may look great in the NCAA report, the number of high school programs that are not under the NFHS are much higher than Basketball where most that play in college played for their high school team.
Going Pro
If your son wants to make a living at a professional sport, there are two that are head an shoulders above the reset, baseball and hockey. These two sports have minor league programs and drafts that allow young men to play the sport and make a living below the major league level. They are the only two sports that have decent numbers as well as a long standing minor league system. For women, basketball is mentioned in the survey, and the numbers are not good, you can make a living at tennis and golf, there is no minor league team structure in golf or tennis for women or men, unless you make it to the top 100, making a living is difficult without a team to pick up any expenses. Soccer has opportunities over and above the numbers in the survey for both women and men if they are willing to live outside of the US. This is also true of men’s basketball. Not mentioned in the survey is volleyball which does have a professional level in the US and around the world, however volleyball has high participation high school levels and a good number of college teams producing a large supply which does not bode well for making a living at the sport. The numbers for mens football and basketball are solid and the lack of a strong minor league system in those sports are well known.