Don’t count on this. There are lots of of really good players that could have played on a varsity team but don’t play for one reason or another.
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Well, you make a good point, but this soccer player was called up to the youth national team – he’ll dominate 
Yes. Mine doesn’t have time, so we’ll never know. He’s a senior finance major now and is extremely glad he didn’t play sports anywhere. He has several high school friends playing division one sports and knows many other scholarship athletes at his university. Very few of them can take rigorous majors due to the time commitment necessary for their sport.
There’s a lot of good insight here. I’ll just add our experience(s). Our older child (college '25) is at a good D3 school doing the sport they love in a great city and has had a great experience both with the athletics experience and the college/academic experience. The school was obviously a great fit when they were applying (during covid, so no on-campus tour). Our younger child (same sport, a bit better than older child at the same point in HS) has had eyes on D1 athletics for the past year and is sure they want to go to a big school (10K plus) in a medium or larger city. Younger child is very different personality from their older sibling, but is also clear on their desires/what they’re looking for in a school. We will see what happens, but only one (maybe two) of the places they’ve applied would even be possible as a walk-on, as the others are big ACC and SEC schools with top-notch programs. Our younger child has been actively recruited by D3 schools - including some of the top D3 programs in their sport but has not shown interest.
It’s tough from a parental perspective as we’ve seen our older child thrive in a D3 smaller college environment, and both of us also had good D3 college athletic experiences. The things I’d tell others to keep in mind (and have already been said here) are 1) Big schools often have excellent club teams that can offer fulfilling and fairly competitive experiences and 2) there’s no guarantee - as others have said - I know so many people who were athletes who became injured and could no longer play their sport, and others for whom D1 intensity killed their love of the sport. And finally - for non-revenue sports (especially men’s sports) there is the ever constant threat that the team will be cut in service of football. (One of the schools my child should really be applying to based on they’re stated preferences cut their sport a few years ago, and several others have recently cut or tried to cut this sport).
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I was asking S23 how some of his friends from his sport are doing in college. His response was “Mom, I’ve never had anxiety, but now that I’m not playing I realize how stressful it was with games, practices, missing classes, time management and only having friends on the team because that’s all you ever see. I now realize that I really love my new friend group and my sports friends were just my friends because we were together almost all of our non-studying moments. They are not really the people I have the most in common with. (Most of his sports friends did not have other interests while he has a lot of other interests). There is no way I’d be able to be doing everything I’m doing here if I were playing a sport”.
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Are you comfortable & willing to name the sport that several colleges are cutting or trying to cut ?
Thanks.
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Not sure about @VAParent2528 but we just retired from the swimming world; teams are being cut left and right. Schools don’t want to invest in new 50 meter facilities for a non revenue team. Some allowed USA teams out of their facilities for revenue, but there’s been issues between USA Swimming, Safesport and colleges. Pools are budget killers; some of the women’s teams survived because of Title 9, but I think many will be on the chopping block as schools shift to lower cost women’s sports to fulfill Title 9 requirements.
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Track & Field / Cross country. (JMU, Radford have womens running but not mens. Richmond recently announced something - I can’t remember the details, but I think keeping mens XC and distance events in track but cutting sprints/jumps? William and Mary tried to cut their teams but they were re-instated. University of Delaware doesn’t have xc/track at all. Some others have track but not xc, others xc but not track. U. Maryland (main campus). It’s not just running however. Gymnastics, especially mens, has dwindled in many places - it’s expensive. Crew too.
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I agree swimming and diving, especially men’s teams, have been cut over the last 5 years or so. Some schools have tried to cut track and field or XC, but those have been able to hang on a bit better.
And my kids’ hs school had a $10M outdoor pool. They made money on it (and ther facilities and field in the sports complex) by renting it out all.the. time! You could go by at any time of the day or night, on weekends, and some group (master’s swim, clubs, parties) would be using that pool. (Olympic 50m pool with some special liner that came from Italy)
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Even Stanford, which arguably can afford as many sports as it wants, has been trying to make cuts in recent years. https://wapo.st/3GCmtOj (gift link, from 2021) It wasn’t even based on real financial impact, as I know that the fencing team had already raised enough funds to be self-sustaining.
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