Few StaTS...

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I thought this fact was interesting.

Only 3-4% of high school players get the opportunity to play college football... shmoop.com/careers/football

Wonder how this compares to softball?

Also, just 9 in 10,000 or .09% of high school senior football players are eventually drafted by an NFL team.

 

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I would guess less than 2%, but let’s try a little math…..

Here are the number of softball programs.
There are 286 NCAA DI programs, 264 NCAA DII, 392 NCAA DIII, 205 NAIA and 470 NJCAA softball programs in the United States. That’s 1,617 programs. Now assume that each program has an average of 16 girls per team. So that’s 25,872 girls playing softball. Now assume that 25% of those are new recruits every year; that’s 6,468 new recruits.

There are 612 school districts in Ohio. Assume 5 seniors/yr on a varsity squad. That is 3,060 girls graduating HS every year.

Ohio represents about 3.68% of the American population (2012 census), so assume out of 6,468 new recruits Ohio would get 238 of those.

So 238 of 3,060 graduates could go on to play softball. That’s almost 8%. Sounds high, but I couldn’t find the % listed anywhere. Feel free to pick apart my math!

That’s just girls playing…….NOT scholarships.

Here is a good link for other sports, but softball is not listed and it is just NCAA. How Many High School Athletes Get To Play NCAA Sports.


Also FAQS states that "Only two percent of high school athletes will play college sports."

 

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Dave ... I think I just found someone to take over the stats for our team!!

Seriously though, I thought about the math and, if anything, most of the assumptions would only make the number higher. For example, I would say the average college roster is probably more than 16, and the % of those who are freshman is definitely more than 25% as you see relatively few juniors and seniors in college rosters. In the link, baseball is 6%, and I don't see any reason why softball would be less than this ... I bet the 8% figure is pretty good.

I will send over the stats spreadsheet as soon as I get off of here!

 

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Found additional data...

Softball Scholarships & Chances of Playing College Softball

If this website is correct then 8% was close.

This also includes a nice list of all schools with softball programs in each division.

Thanks for the offer Jeff, but not really a stat type of guy.

 

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Lol, darn it Dave!

Very good analysis you did though ... and I agreed with it so giving myself a little credit too! ;-)

While 8% is comparatively "high", that's still only 1 out of every 12 girls ... no doubt it would be higher if you looked at the girls playing 16-U or 18-U travel ball.

 

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Seriously though, I thought about the math and, if anything, most of the assumptions would only make the number higher. For example, I would say the average college roster is probably more than 16, and the % of those who are freshman is definitely more than 25% as you see relatively few juniors and seniors in college rosters. In the link, baseball is 6%, and I don't see any reason why softball would be less than this ... I bet the 8% figure is pretty good.

According to the ScholarshipStats website, the average college roster is 18 for softball and 32 for baseball (they have to carry a lot of pitchers). It also says 11.2% of HS baseball players compete in college versus 7.8% for softball. The number of HS baseball players (474k) is only 24% higher than HS softball (381k) because the HS baseball rosters are just a little larger than softball. There are 79% more college baseball players (53k) than softball (30k) because of the much larger baseball rosters.

 

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Great thread and very informative. Going to share with my team.

 

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You only have short time to play this sport (or others) and if you are fortunate to play at the next level you should be proud. There is no going back and wish you could of or should of.

You are an Elite student/athlete for a reason. Scholarship or no scholarship memories will last a lifetime and its an accomplishment that no one can take away from you.