There is a huge range in d3 sports in terms of the level, but overall our experience (soccer and lacrosse not football, but would suspect if anything football less competitive in d3) the average not that different from the kids on varsity teams at large public suburban schools or reasonably competitive independent schools. For girls soccer and it seems many other non-football sports some schools (top of NESCAC league such as Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, locally JOhns Hopkins) recruit from same pool as d1 programs and provides an alternative for kids who play at a very high level but don't want the d1 sports lifestyle (no vacations, no semester abroad, crazy schedules, discouragement from taking hard lab based science classes), but other d3 programs had teams far worse than my daughter's high school or club teams.

Look at the NCAA website and go to the d3 end of season tournament bracket for football. Can get a good idea of which schools to avoid if your son is not a superstar, the schools that were in tournament and made it out of first round for instance.

:44 check out Washington & Jefferson College in Washington PA. Good DIII football team and you don't have to have been (awkward, sorry - it's early!) a superstar in hs.

I wonder how difficult it is for a child to play for a very small DIII school. My son plays a sport, and loves it, but he's just good, not amazing. I think he'd enjoy college more if he could play football. My logic is that if he can make the team in our 2,000 kid high school, he has a shot of making it at a 2,000 kid college, but am I deluding myself?

Ditto-- DC was captain and received a sports award. He will play varsity in college, but was not recruited -- only one slot per year in his sport.

It helped my DC because he was the captain of 2 teams at a small school. But not a recruitable athlete in either sport.

Thanks.