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

[Anonymous]

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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.

How do you get noticed by the college sailing coaches? My kid is a strong sailer at some of the local races but not sure how he would get on a coaches radar. he is just a freshman though so we are not there yet. He loves it though and definitely wants to sail in college, even if only at the club level. He is a strong student and has some other good activities so just wondering if there is any way to get him noticed for sailing or if we should try to get him noticed for something else (a non-sport activity).

PP - Is he doing high school sailing or club sailing? If high school sailing is a possibility I HIGHLY recommend doing that. Coaches can easily track how kids are doing there. If club sailing then you will want to try and do events at least regionally, if not nationally. Start writing down every event he does - ie Larlo finished 3/40 in 420 class at the Washington DC Open. While sailing isn't an NCAA sport, it does follow the same basic recruiting timeline, so after sophomore year they can start contact. Look for events being held at colleges with sailing teams or clinics sponsored by those schools. The more highly competitive events he can get into the better. The more double-handed experience he can get, the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

How do you get noticed by the college sailing coaches? My kid is a strong sailer at some of the local races but not sure how he would get on a coaches radar. he is just a freshman though so we are not there yet. He loves it though and definitely wants to sail in college, even if only at the club level. He is a strong student and has some other good activities so just wondering if there is any way to get him noticed for sailing or if we should try to get him noticed for something else (a non-sport activity).

PP - Is he doing high school sailing or club sailing? If high school sailing is a possibility I HIGHLY recommend doing that. Coaches can easily track how kids are doing there. If club sailing then you will want to try and do events at least regionally, if not nationally. Start writing down every event he does - ie Larlo finished 3/40 in 420 class at the Washington DC Open. While sailing isn't an NCAA sport, it does follow the same basic recruiting timeline, so after sophomore year they can start contact. Look for events being held at colleges with sailing teams or clinics sponsored by those schools. The more highly competitive events he can get into the better. The more double-handed experience he can get, the better.

Also to add for college sailing it doesn't matter what type of team it is at the school - they all compete in the same events. So a self-funded club team at University of Maryland can be in the same regattas as a fully-funded varsity team from Harvard and in theory could beat them. It's one of the great things about college sailing.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote: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?

Racist idiot. The hardest sport to get recruited in is football. The NFL has plenty of Ivy League students and top colleges that go right into the NFL. Not an easy feat.
Recruited players mostly come from the football universities mostly down south but plenty come from top 50 schools.

The easiest sport to get recruited for is baseball. And they can’t even give away female golf scholarships because it’s such an old persons game.

I think most men would play football in a heartbeat if they had the talent, the strength, the balls, but they can’t so they put it down.

Again…not sure why or how the posting is racist. The NFL has almost zero Ivy League players anymore…maybe there was 1 drafted last year.

Ivy League teams wouldn’t ever take the field against a Power 4 team because the risk of serious injury would be massive. Kids are easily 50 pounds lighter on average…it’s two completely separate recruiting pools.

OP said if your kid is very athletic and decent size, not what sport can anyone play of any size or shape.

Currently there are between 9-12 Ivy League graduates playing for the NFL. There are also currently two former NFL Ivy League players who are head coaches. That’s pretty good considering the Ivy leagues aren’t known for having athletic students.

They draft the ones that are good enough just like at the big football universities.

The game has changed dramatically, especially with the transfer portal.

If by chance an Ivy player is good enough, they are entering the portal and going to a better team (often with significant NIL money if a skill position).

As a result, Ivy schools are spending even less time recruiting kids that have the potential to jump teams. Kids don’t care about graduating from Harvard if they can earn hundreds of thousands in NIL money.

You won’t see any Ivy players drafted to the NFL anymore. Much the same way you won’t ever have a Jeremy Lin drafted to the NBA.

There will always be a handful that have the potential to go pro in the Ivy League. The Harvard - Brown game is a big deal every year. I’m sure both schools want to win. The only way to win is having top players.

The students don’t lose out by entering the transfer portal because they are transferred to top colleges like Villanova, Georgetown, Michigan. I get what you’re saying, why would the Ivy League schools bother only to lose their best players. But they are still a league and they still compete.

[Anonymous]

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 preferably tall with a good wingspan. Like 5'7 min and preferably 5'9 or 5'11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you say that you are recruited to play in college, do you mean scholarships? or just play on the team?

Rowing: No mens scholarships....it isn't a NCAA sport. Womens rowing is easier than most other sports, but there are fewer total teams. Unlike most other sports, there are very few D2 teams. And the best D3 teams are much better than the weakest D1 teams. The strong D1 teams pretty much require rowers to be over 5'8 or 5'9 with 7:45 or better 2K times...even then the majority will not get even partial scholarships. Someone mentioned coxswains for shorter kids, but very few if any coxswains get scholarships. And it doesn't really help to be athletic....it's a leadership, strategy and steering position.

This can't be true any longer - that was the case 30 years ago and things have become more competitive since then

[Anonymous]

Rowing is a joke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For girls or boys, discuss.

And on the other side, what do you consider the hardest sport to get recruited for if you do not have elite talent?

What type of school are the parents and kid targeting? It is very different to be targeting any college recruitment period or targeting the Ivy League or the elite (predominantly) D3 schools (like MIT, Hopkins, Amherst, Swarthmore, Williams, Chicago) or targeting Power 4 types of schools.

Football, for example, is played by many of America's most athletic boys (probably only behind basketball there). However, it is played at a significantly lower level of competitiveness in the Ivy League than most of their other sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think hardest are soccer and basketball.

Tennis also very hard due to small teams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think hardest are soccer and basketball.

Tennis also very hard due to small teams?

Yes based on scholarshipstats.com it’s the hardest

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:is crew or water polo easy?

hardest? basketball

Water polo is not easy…tons of kids from west coast play. Crew is easier. Basketball and soccer are tough for boys. Everything is easier for girls because less competition and Title IX

Not true re basketball because height factors heavily.. If the kid is 6"10, it won't be that hard. Can't coach height.

My kid’s powerhouse high school had a 6’10” kid who didn’t progress beyond JV. Basketball is a skill sport. Tall kids with no skills are turnover machines and get called for shooting fouls all the time. All the other team has to do is attack them at the rim and they get two shots. My kid’s training group included a 7’1” kid who didn’t have great D-1 offers for the same reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:International student athletes have totally skewed the results of your chances of being a college athlete in several sports.

According to the NCAA: More than 25,000 international student-athletes across all three divisions participate in NCAA sports.
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/3/21/international-student-athlete-participation.aspx
This was in 2018, so there might be more now.

The majority of college tennis player who get scholarships are international students. I don't understand why basketball and football players who make money for universities are subsidizing international students playing country club sports.

According to an NCAA Research report published in December 2022, 61% of male and 66% of female Division I tennis players are international students, up from approximately 38% and 50% reported in 2006-2007.

My roommate was a tennis player (From the UK). All of the other girls on the team were also international.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:International student athletes have totally skewed the results of your chances of being a college athlete in several sports.

According to the NCAA: More than 25,000 international student-athletes across all three divisions participate in NCAA sports.
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/3/21/international-student-athlete-participation.aspx
This was in 2018, so there might be more now.

The majority of college tennis player who get scholarships are international students. I don't understand why basketball and football players who make money for universities are subsidizing international students playing country club sports.

According to an NCAA Research report published in December 2022, 61% of male and 66% of female Division I tennis players are international students, up from approximately 38% and 50% reported in 2006-2007.

You're also competing with Canadians for spots in every sport.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Golf

My son is going to play D3 baseball (already committed) but he is injured at the moment. He picked up golf this summer while he heals and loves it and practices obsessively, since he can’t practice baseball. I asked him if his injury doesn’t heal fully would he consider switching to golf in college? He laughed at me and explained the math of how few male golfers can make collegiate teams.

I had no idea!

+1

My DS is a freshman on the golf team at an Ivy, and there are eight members on the golf team. Golf is probably one of the hardest sports to make the team due to roster size. DS also told me that only he and another member of the team are from a middle-class family, the other six members are from very wealthy families. Those wealthy teammates are nice to DS, but they hang out among themselves after golf, and that DS is not part of their cliques.

OTOH,

I knew two women on the golf team at a PAC-10 university; they both had a full ride.

They joked they were not even very good at golf, but because of Title IX, the university was desperate to recruit them.

Not that many girls play golf.

[Anonymous]

Easiest: fencing. Not a lot of competition.

This is absolutely untrue. For the parents pushing their kids into fencing in hopes they will be recruited to Princeton, you have to be one of the top fencers in the country (if not the world). Programs like Princeton, Columbia, and Notre Dame are highly selective, routinely attract the top national and international fencers, and have produced a number of Olympians.

That said, there are D1 and D3 programs, usually at less selective schools, that will recruit lower-rated/ranked fencers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Easiest: fencing. Not a lot of competition.

This is absolutely untrue. For the parents pushing their kids into fencing in hopes they will be recruited to Princeton, you have to be one of the top fencers in the country (if not the world). Programs like Princeton, Columbia, and Notre Dame are highly selective, routinely attract the top national and international fencers, and have produced a number of Olympians.

That said, there are D1 and D3 programs, usually at less selective schools, that will recruit lower-rated/ranked fencers.

The point is nobody fences