Percentage of D2 and D3 student-athletes who quit college sport after freshman year?

[Anonymous]

We knew an ace swimmer, D1 scholarship, and she had some sort of mental health breakdown at college and quit the sport. I can’t remember if it was her fresh or soph year. Her parents alluded to the pressure sort of cracking her. Plus the D1 university was across the country, so she didn’t know anyone there or have a real support system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My freshman roommate was crew and quickly quit. My husband’s roommate at a different college was a basketball player who quit after his freshman year season because he started smoking pot and got lazy. Sporty kids tend to have their schedules controlled by their parents, so once they get a taste of freedom, the early morning practices and weekends away on road trips seem pointless.

I don’t control my high school son’s schedule. He knows where he has to be at what time thanks to TeamSnap. All I do is provide the ride.

The way I hear D1 works, they provide even more structure and control to the athlete’s life than they had at home in high school.

And with nobody to boss them around, they do what they want: Get a boyfriend or girlfriend, sleep in, and party.

🤷‍♂️ that’s the way to behave if you want to be off the team, anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this data exist?

I don't know of any data that would show D3 information because no one on is on scholarships. D2 might be slightly different if you could track scholarships. But, my anecdotal evidence of playing a D3 sport and looking at the team I played on and the other teams at the school, I'd guess it was about 60% attrition rate from those showing up to play on the the team freshman year to seniors walking onto the court to meet their parents on senior night for that sport. Obviously some sports had more attrition than others. And generally the kids that decided to know longer play were the kids that didn't see the field or court in the 1st 2 years or so and were passed over by younger players.

[Anonymous]

The coaches understand the attrition and recruit large groups of freshman.

[Anonymous]

Not D3 but Harvard - 27% attrition.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/21/athlete-attrition-data-2020/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not D3 but Harvard - 27% attrition.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/21/athlete-attrition-data-2020/

Yes for clown sports they do this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not D3 but Harvard - 27% attrition.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/21/athlete-attrition-data-2020/

The Brown AD estimated 30% quit in 2016 too. That is high!
I was an athlete at a top ranked D3 school and the time commitment was intense but nothing like a high-end D1, which I've observed post-grad at Stanford and Maryland. Schools like Amherst, Chicago, Hopkins, MIT, Swarthmore, and Williams strike a better balance expectation wise. I love my sport and still play at over 30 but the difficulties described in the Harvard article would be tough to deal with for four years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not D3 but Harvard - 27% attrition.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/21/athlete-attrition-data-2020/

The Brown AD estimated 30% quit in 2016 too. That is high!
I was an athlete at a top ranked D3 school and the time commitment was intense but nothing like a high-end D1, which I've observed post-grad at Stanford and Maryland. Schools like Amherst, Chicago, Hopkins, MIT, Swarthmore, and Williams strike a better balance expectation wise. I love my sport and still play at over 30 but the difficulties described in the Harvard article would be tough to deal with for four years.

D3 sports are a joke

[Anonymous]

Our tour guide at a US News T10 (D3 sports) made a pretty big production out of quitting her college sport. It was either track and field or cross country but she said running in college made her hate running. She was being sarcastic but serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our tour guide at a US News T10 (D3 sports) made a pretty big production out of quitting her college sport. It was either track and field or cross country but she said running in college made her hate running. She was being sarcastic but serious.

Some tour guides think they are amusing, but they aren’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not D3 but Harvard - 27% attrition.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/21/athlete-attrition-data-2020/

Yes for clown sports they do this

Football is a clown sport?

In the Class of 2020, 11 out of 28 members of the football team ended up quitting the team. Football, which fields the largest team at Harvard, had the greatest number of athletes who dropped their sport, though it ranked ninth percentage-wise for the Class of 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not D3 but Harvard - 27% attrition.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/21/athlete-attrition-data-2020/

The Brown AD estimated 30% quit in 2016 too. That is high!
I was an athlete at a top ranked D3 school and the time commitment was intense but nothing like a high-end D1, which I've observed post-grad at Stanford and Maryland. Schools like Amherst, Chicago, Hopkins, MIT, Swarthmore, and Williams strike a better balance expectation wise. I love my sport and still play at over 30 but the difficulties described in the Harvard article would be tough to deal with for four years.

D3 sports are a joke

Spoken like someone that's never played sports. I won't argue with the differences in athletic ability between D1 and D3 but there is still a huge time commitment for a D3 athlete. It isn't a DI level but then again, they don't get free rides or even partial scholarships. In season, you are talking about 20-30 hours a week. So when you are off boozing it up on a Thursday night or sleeping off a hangover all day Saturday, in season, football players are either travelling to their game or trying to catch up on school work or studying game film - at least the kids that play at good programs are doing that. I played D3 football and 5-6 Saturdays meant waking up at 6 AM taking a 3-4 hour but ride, playing a game, taking a 3-4 hour bus ride home and getting home around 8 PM.

Out of season, you are talking about a minimum of 10 hours a week (usually more) in working out, training, etc.

They are doing this all for fun. There is no pro league for D3 athletes. The stands are generally only filled with parents and close friends. D3 athletes are doing this because they love to play and realize that there is only a finite time left to play their sport at a competitive level - for football players (which I was one). After you graduate, there is no post-college football league or pick-up a D3 athlete can play in unlike other sports like basketball et al.

[Anonymous]

did anyone watch the NFL draft?? If you did you’d notice how many were “no-name” players that faced a lot of adversity and were late developers.

[Anonymous]

There are injuries and some players who are juniors or seniors realize they don’t want to finish out college sitting on the bench. Why not leave the team, leaving room for more recruits? I think this is how it’s always been. Transfer portal may change this though.

[Anonymous]

Some D3 athletes do go pro. Ever heard of Duncan Robinson, for example? Saying D3 sucks is obviously a misleading generalization.
By the way, some D1 athletes suck, in my opinion. Some D1 schools have some really atrocious sports teams.
But yeah, on average, big difference between D3 and D1.