8% of high school football players compete in college at any level. 12.3% of male ice hockey players and 13% of male lacrosse players compete in college. In D1, the numbers are closer at 2.4%, 3.3% and 2.8% respectively, so the numbers would argue against the competition for college spots being more “fierce” in lacrosse or hockey than football.
As far as which sport would be missed more, Princeton drew about 1,800 fans per home game (6 Events) in lacrosse, about 2,000 in hockey (12 events) and just shy of 10,000 in football (5 events). At Syracuse, the football team averaged just about 40,000 per home game, and just shy of 4,000 per lacrosse game. Even on the East Coast, the numbers would argue that lacrosse or hockey is just not in the same conversation fan interest wise. Nothing against the smaller sports, but any look at the numbers in the NCAA makes it pretty clear that football and men’s basketball are really the engine that makes everything else go.