If you're a reasonably strong athlete, what's the easiest recruited sport to play in college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For men, the hardest D1 sport to be recruited for is basketball. The level of competition is insane. Plus you really need to be above 6'4 at least.

Easiest, if you have the height, is crew. Some discipline and basic athleticism will get you on a boat if you are tall.

I don't know about girls. I'd think a tall strong girl with some discipline would get on crew pretty easily.

I imagine roster size also makes basketball hard. Golf also hard due to recruiting exclusively from tournys and not HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Golf

Why?

[Anonymous]

Tennis is probably the hardest sport to make the roster in college. Golf is probably right behind tennis in terms of difficulty making the roster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tennis is probably the hardest sport to make the roster in college. Golf is probably right behind tennis in terms of difficulty making the roster.

This. small roster size plus 4.5 scholarships plus competing against the world

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://scholarshipstats.com/

Crew based on this.

I was going to guess crew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tennis is probably the hardest sport to make the roster in college. Golf is probably right behind tennis in terms of difficulty making the roster.

This. small roster size plus 4.5 scholarships plus competing against the world

Both tennis and golf have a maximum of 4.5 scholarships. One thing that most people don't realize is that the majority of tennis/golf players come from wealthy families, so that 4.5 scholarships mean nothing to them. They just happily play at Ivies on full-pay because Ivies don't give out athletic scholarships, if I recall correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are under 110lbs, learn how to be a crew in sailing (NOT crew, but the second person in a double handed handed boat). A couple of years of high school sailing experience will open a ton of doors. Skippers are a very different story, but often top college crews have never set foot in a boat before college, so to have some experience, and be small and athletic, is a huge advantage.

Sailing is not an official NCAA sport. The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and does not allow competitors to receive scholarships or financial aid based on sailing ability

PP - I'm a former college sailor and I am well aware. However, much like men's rowing, they will find a way to give you extra money if you are coming there to sail (for example I received a "special talent" scholarship from one college for playing the violin, I had no intention of playing it in college). Moreso though it can give a boost at highly selective colleges and universities where the sailing coach does get to submit a list for consideration in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are under 110lbs, learn how to be a crew in sailing (NOT crew, but the second person in a double handed handed boat). A couple of years of high school sailing experience will open a ton of doors. Skippers are a very different story, but often top college crews have never set foot in a boat before college, so to have some experience, and be small and athletic, is a huge advantage.

Sailing is not an official NCAA sport. The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and does not allow competitors to receive scholarships or financial aid based on sailing ability

PP - I'm a former college sailor and I am well aware. However, much like men's rowing, they will find a way to give you extra money if you are coming there to sail (for example I received a "special talent" scholarship from one college for playing the violin, I had no intention of playing it in college). Moreso though it can give a boost at highly selective colleges and universities where the sailing coach does get to submit a list for consideration in admissions.

PP again, the question was about getting recruited, not scholarship money, so was just answering that question!

[Anonymous]

Didn’t read entire thread…but football if you are aiming for academic D1 schools (Ivy, Patriot League and the league that Georgetown is in).

Not enough smart kids play football because of head injuries, but every school has a team and they need to recruit lots of them.

These schools also have lightweight football teams…which I have never understood. It’s not a D1 sport, but I still assume they recruit for some players?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tennis is probably the hardest sport to make the roster in college. Golf is probably right behind tennis in terms of difficulty making the roster.

This. small roster size plus 4.5 scholarships plus competing against the world

Both tennis and golf have a maximum of 4.5 scholarships. One thing that most people don't realize is that the majority of tennis/golf players come from wealthy families, so that 4.5 scholarships mean nothing to them. They just happily play at Ivies on full-pay because Ivies don't give out athletic scholarships, if I recall correctly.

It’s simply not that easy to play tennis golf at ivies like it was 20-30 years ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Squash

Squash is certainly NOT an easy sport to get recruited for. You have to be at least in the top 40 juniors in the country to get a chance at getting recruited and even then, there is lots of international competition, especially from the Egyptians.
I know someone who was ranked in the Top 30 nationally and could not even get recruited at a decent school (in spite of a very good GPA and SAT scores).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tennis is probably the hardest sport to make the roster in college. Golf is probably right behind tennis in terms of difficulty making the roster.

This. small roster size plus 4.5 scholarships plus competing against the world

Both tennis and golf have a maximum of 4.5 scholarships. One thing that most people don't realize is that the majority of tennis/golf players come from wealthy families, so that 4.5 scholarships mean nothing to them. They just happily play at Ivies on full-pay because Ivies don't give out athletic scholarships, if I recall correctly.

Almost everyone realizes that golf and tennis are rich kid sports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like Crew. I know a group of girls who did crew at an Ivy and didn't seem like they started before middle school, nor that they were as intense about their sport as other college athletes

As a girl, to be recruited for an Ivy, you need to be very fast on the erg (rowing machine).

And all of the top rowing schools are looking for tall girls. In some cases 5’10 and above.

Coxswain for the shorties

Daughter was a coxswain at Princeton - 5 foot 1 - 2400 on the SAT’s and 11 5 scores on the AP exams - even then I think crew helped her with admission - she was a great coxswain with super competitive awareness

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like Crew. I know a group of girls who did crew at an Ivy and didn't seem like they started before middle school, nor that they were as intense about their sport as other college athletes

As a girl, to be recruited for an Ivy, you need to be very fast on the erg (rowing machine).

And all of the top rowing schools are looking for tall girls. In some cases 5’10 and above.

Coxswain for the shorties

Daughter was a coxswain at Princeton - 5 foot 1 - 2400 on the SAT’s and 11 5 scores on the AP exams - even then I think crew helped her with admission - she was a great coxswain with super competitive awareness

Wow she’s a midget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tennis is probably the hardest sport to make the roster in college. Golf is probably right behind tennis in terms of difficulty making the roster.

+1