What level can I play in college?
Determining the right division level to play in college depends two factors. How good are you now and how good can you be? Despite what you think, it is not based solely on your height, weight and athleticism.
How good they are now – coaches are always looking for recruits who can come in and make an impact right away. They determine this by how good you are right now. Remember, you might be able to walk-on to a DI program but can come in and contribute right away at the DII or NAIA level.
What is their potential – this is more commonly where coaches are evaluating recruits. Coaches and scouts are very good at watching film or watching you in person and making an assessment on how good you can be. Maybe you don’t get to play against elite competition, but with a year of practice at the college level, you will really improve and be a top talent.
For sports like track and field and swimming finding the right division level is pretty easy. Look at the results of college meets and see if your times match up. If you look at the conference championship results for s school you are interested in and your times are comparable, then chances are good you can compete at that level.
In sports like golf, tennis and wrestling, you want to see what tournaments the current college athletes were playing in high school. Go to the schools website and read the bio’s about the athletes already on the team. Often times their high school accomplishments are listed here, if you see you have a similar ranking or similar results then that division level is right for you.
The most difficult sports to determine the right division level are football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. For these sports you need to not only measure up physically, but you need to know where you stack up against the other top recruits. If you go to a big club team event or a top camp and are one of the best players there, chances are good you could be a DI talent. If you are a middle of the road talent or struggling to compete, maybe you should look at the other division levels.
Getting an evaluation is the most critical thing to determining what division level is right for you. This is where our free profiles can help. When you create a profile and one of our NCAA certified scouts will contact you and can make an initial evaluation. This isn’t a full in depth evaluation of watching you in person, but they are going to be able to explain to you in detail what it takes to play at a certain division level.
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