How many athletes compete in college?
Did you know there’s more than just the NCAA? The NAIA and NJCAA also represent opportunities for high school athletes to compete at the next level. Though, most people typically think about competing at the Division 1, 2, or 3 level in the NCAA.
According to the NCAA, the following number of student athletes compete at each division level:
Division 1: 204,000 across 355 schools
Division 2: 133,000 across 293 schools
Division 3: 202,000 across 425 schools
It might surprise you to learn that there’s nearly as many division 3 athletes as there are division 1. Typically D1 and D3 schools both have about 19 sports programs per school while D2 typically only has 17. A part of the reason that there are so many D3 athletes is that 1 in 5 students are a student athlete and as shown above there’s many more D3 schools than there are D2 or D1.
As you consider what division might work best for you, keep in mind that well more than half of student athletes don’t compete at the division 1 level.
The chart below helps provide reasonable data on what percentage of high school athletes go from competing in high school to be recruited for college athletics and eventually competing at the professional level. Don’t be discouraged by seeing that less than 10% of high school athletes compete in college. This data point doesn’t consider how many people actually want to compete in college and run a structured recruiting process. If you’re open to finding a program that’s the best fit for you, there’s thousands of opportunities in your sport every year.
Source: NCAA
With so many opportunities and varying compliance regulations across the divisions, it’s helpful to start your recruiting process early. In most cases, starting to take the recruiting process seriously during your sophomore and junior year gives you plenty of time with the right tools in place. RecruitReach can help you stay organized, quickly discover your favorite schools, and effectively communicate with coaches at all levels.
