Anonymous
Post 11/11/2025 15:26     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:The revival of this thread is the beautiful marriage of two core DCUM constituencies: parents who resent that sports have any impact on selective colleges admissions and parents who hate LACs (or any others than SWAT). Have a day, guys!


It's fun to laugh at the smug Type-A UMC parents who get extorted by and blow eye-popping sums of money on the travel sports racket for a lottery-winning chance to "play at the next level." They're as foolish as working class proles who piss away money on lotto and scatcher tickets every payday.
Anonymous
Post 11/11/2025 15:23     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: Top 1% go D1, is that true? Seems like even less than that. And nearly all of the kids we’ve seen go D1 or D2 either ride the bench or quit after a year.


This NCAA chart is old, but I would guess the percentages aren’t that much different today.
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx


That chart does not pass the smell test. For one, it doesn't take into account all the foreigners on these rosters. I think it's also probably super misleading and the top 1-5% who go D1 come from a lot of the same feeder hot spots and creme de la creme travel teams. And honestly, who in the hell cares if your kid goes D1 and has to walk-on with no scholarship and/or just rides the bench and has to piss away their college study and free time practicing and traning? It's totally pointless and miserable for the kids.
Anonymous
Post 11/11/2025 12:28     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
The revival of this thread is the beautiful marriage of two core DCUM constituencies: parents who resent that sports have any impact on selective colleges admissions and parents who hate LACs (or any others than SWAT). Have a day, guys!
Anonymous
Post 11/11/2025 12:25     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote: Top 1% go D1, is that true? Seems like even less than that. And nearly all of the kids we’ve seen go D1 or D2 either ride the bench or quit after a year.


This NCAA chart is old, but I would guess the percentages aren’t that much different today.
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx
Anonymous
Post 11/11/2025 06:35     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Some schools give a lot of money for this so they can field a decent team. In others, it may give an admissions edge, though I guess OP is only referring to "mediocre" schools. Not everyone has the stats for the U of Chicago, which doesn't relax standards much, if at all, for athletes.

Not everyone wants to go to a big state U, so if they can get money for continuing to play their sport at a school they would be interested in anyway, they'll do it. And, I suppose others are like the OP describes.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 23:39     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:What is an "elite" LAC? Only the top 4 or 5 per US News? Top 13? Top 30?


The top 15 or so SLACs have almost identical student profile profiles, the next half dozen or so are right behind them.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 23:37     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Absolutely for D3. Huge scam. They love reasonably decent athletes whose parents are full pay, whether it's a name brand school or not. The kids love being "recruited."


It’s not a scam at all. There are many affordable small state colleges that have D3 programs. The top 1% of athletes recruited in D1 colleges have a lot of test scores and grades overlooked. The talented athletes who will probably not play professionally will go to D3 colleges. And let’s be honest, athletes don’t always have great academic records, especially the big sports hockey, football, basketball.

The D3 players will choose a school based on their grades, go for four years, sometimes five years, and leave with a degree. Some posters here say their kids who aren’t good enough for any division will continue club sports because they love it. What’s the difference.


Top 1% go D1, is that true? Seems like even less than that. And nearly all of the kids we’ve seen go D1 or D2 either ride the bench or quit after a year.


I don’t know, I meant the very top athletes who have a future in sports, sports like basketball, baseball, hockey, football.

If a student isn’t good enough to play D1 but qualifies academically for an Ivy I would think that’s an easy decision. Go to Ivy. But if a student has average grades and more sports talent than academic talent, D3 is a good choice.


More academic leeway at the Ivies than in the NESCAC.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 23:34     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Absolutely for D3. Huge scam. They love reasonably decent athletes whose parents are full pay, whether it's a name brand school or not. The kids love being "recruited."


It’s not a scam at all. There are many affordable small state colleges that have D3 programs. The top 1% of athletes recruited in D1 colleges have a lot of test scores and grades overlooked. The talented athletes who will probably not play professionally will go to D3 colleges. And let’s be honest, athletes don’t always have great academic records, especially the big sports hockey, football, basketball.

The D3 players will choose a school based on their grades, go for four years, sometimes five years, and leave with a degree. Some posters here say their kids who aren’t good enough for any division will continue club sports because they love it. What’s the difference.


Top 1% go D1, is that true? Seems like even less than that. And nearly all of the kids we’ve seen go D1 or D2 either ride the bench or quit after a year.


I don’t know, I meant the very top athletes who have a future in sports, sports like basketball, baseball, hockey, football.

If a student isn’t good enough to play D1 but qualifies academically for an Ivy I would think that’s an easy decision. Go to Ivy. But if a student has average grades and more sports talent than academic talent, D3 is a good choice.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 22:45     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
What is an "elite" LAC? Only the top 4 or 5 per US News? Top 13? Top 30?
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 22:07     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DIII has scholarships, they just call them “merit”. As soon as your kid has an offer, coaches from other schools will try to beat whatever money they are getting.

Not a scam. Don’t do it if you don’t want to.


Cannot be more than an equivalent student would receive if they weren’t an athlete.


In our experience, it was very significant. I was surprised.


It wasn’t, schools get audited and bad things happen. Just ask Union college.


What happened at Union? Interestingly DS was being pursued rather heavily by Union but went elsewhere.


Union was one of the founding members of the NESCAC. Years ago their hockey coach was caught up in a recruiting scandal and before everything was done the school president had to resign. Union left the NESCAC before they were expelled and after a few years reinstated their hockey program as a D1 program. Its a very good D1 program but Union really is more of a NESCAC school and it is unfortunate that it happened.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 21:18     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
I like watching hockey more than lacrosse.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 21:09     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Absolutely for D3. Huge scam. They love reasonably decent athletes whose parents are full pay, whether it's a name brand school or not. The kids love being "recruited."


It’s not a scam at all. There are many affordable small state colleges that have D3 programs. The top 1% of athletes recruited in D1 colleges have a lot of test scores and grades overlooked. The talented athletes who will probably not play professionally will go to D3 colleges. And let’s be honest, athletes don’t always have great academic records, especially the big sports hockey, football, basketball.

The D3 players will choose a school based on their grades, go for four years, sometimes five years, and leave with a degree. Some posters here say their kids who aren’t good enough for any division will continue club sports because they love it. What’s the difference.


Top 1% go D1, is that true? Seems like even less than that. And nearly all of the kids we’ve seen go D1 or D2 either ride the bench or quit after a year.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 20:11     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Absolutely for D3. Huge scam. They love reasonably decent athletes whose parents are full pay, whether it's a name brand school or not. The kids love being "recruited."


It’s not a scam at all. There are many affordable small state colleges that have D3 programs. The top 1% of athletes recruited in D1 colleges have a lot of test scores and grades overlooked. The talented athletes who will probably not play professionally will go to D3 colleges. And let’s be honest, athletes don’t always have great academic records, especially the big sports hockey, football, basketball.

The D3 players will choose a school based on their grades, go for four years, sometimes five years, and leave with a degree. Some posters here say their kids who aren’t good enough for any division will continue club sports because they love it. What’s the difference.


Or club at an Ivy. The club teams for some sports are incredibly hard to make- filled with kids that had D3 offers and a lot of Internationals. I know many that turned down D3.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 19:48     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:A friend's son was heavily recruited by an Ivy (well, more than just the Ivy, but that's the relevant part) at a very young age (pre-freshman), and the kid and the parents decided that, academically, the Ivy would be too much for this child to handle and chose to verbally commit to a Big 10 school, which is well-known, but definitely not an academic powerhouse. I was surprised at first, and impressed upon further reflection. They are not choosing the sport over the school, but they know what the child is capable of, academically, and are somewhat setting up for success, rather than failure - and not just buying into a school for the prestigious name.


So this kid plays a sport. And an Ivy heavily recruited a prepubescent kid who would not be available for 4 or 5 years. These recruiters are getting more and more anxious about being first to get an athlete in the 1% for their team.

What happens if he only takes basic classes, no APs but does well. Or what if he peaked in 8th grade and haven’t improved? Can they take the offer back?
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2025 19:37     Subject: Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to
Anonymous wrote:Not sure any kids that poor play lacrosse.


Where have you been? Maybe because I’m from New England but lacrosse is taught in every gym class in public schools, or most. The YMCAs have lacrosse teams for young kids, the high schools have teams. City schools don’t always have the fields to play it and football comes first. It’s cheaper than hockey.