College Football

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>I'm interested in possibly playing football during college. However, even though i love it, i wouldn't look at it as my first priority, or even my second. At the moment i have been talking to a lot of DIII schools as well as several DI schools in lower conferences. My question is, how much time commitment is there if you participate in DIII football? If it is a religious school does that change it at all?</p>

<p>academics as well as the ROTC program are what i consider to be most important. And time seems like a possible issue.</p>

<p>But if i decide against college football i am afraid i will regret it greatly</p>

<p>opinions or hindsight?</p>

2

<p>Any sport is a major time commitment… at a minimum for the D3 level there are 3 hour practices that are really longer due to changing and warm up at least 4 days a week, friday is usually a travel day with a walkthrough practice, Saturday is game day which takes up the whole day, and Sunday is an off day… an off day with meetings. There are also meetings during the week, offensive meetings, defensive meetings, special teams, position meetings and individual meetings. all this adds up to a significant amount of time. I would think that if it isnt high on your list, then the time commitmment might be more than you are willing to spend.</p>

3

<p>My daughter play basketball at what I guess you mean by a “religious school”… its NAIA and the commitment is far above high school and quite frankly a VERY big time consumption. If you don’t want to put football as your top or second priority don’t waste your time because it probably won’t be satisfactory to either you, your teammates or your coaches and there is probably someone out there who would die to have a spot you may take up and be willing to give it his all. Perhaps you should consider club sports at the college level. By the way, do not mean to sound harsh, just being honest with my opinion…</p>

4

<p>My son was a freshman football player at a NESCAC school this past fall. Between practice, lifting and film his time commitment was about 5-6 hours per day. He was a student first though, and managed the academics fine. Not sure he could have added much more on top of that …</p>

5

<p>This is my D3 experience, I would bet it is NOT as much time as at D1, as it should be since you aren’t getting “paid.” If you played in high school then you know what a time commitment it is, and it is even more time in college because there is a lot of film study and also meetings. Also, you might be wiped out after practice.</p>

<p>If you didn’t play in HS, or if you didn’t start then I wouldn’t bother, unless you were a sub on an amazing team and you did see playing time. I say this because most D3 schools will take tons of freshmen, but most of them will quit. Check the rosters from year to year and you will notice that of the 60 fresh who were there in 2010 there are only 30 sophs…and some schools lose another 50% of sophs by Jr year.</p>

<p>If you do not KNOW you want to play, I’d say you won’t be willing to put in the work. Also, if you do “make” the team, plan on heading up to school 2-3 weeks early and busting your butt. </p>

<p>You can probably manage the time, but you have to WANT to. </p>

<p>Here was the schedule for at typical D3 Monday…3:34-4:30 practice shorts, 4:45-5:15 Team meet, 5:15-6:30 Off/Def Mtg. 6:30-7 dinner, then spec teams meet.</p>

<p>3:45-6 t,w,th practice, possible meetings …lifting is listed each day, usually in the morning. Friday is prctice 3:15-4:30, team meeting 5-6. Leave for away game if it is far.</p>

<p>Saturday is shot with game day, even if you have time to study you will be tired, or you might want to go out if coach makes team stay in on Friday.</p>

<p>Might want to check if games are far you will lose Fri night to travel.</p>

<p>I believe many D3 private schools have close relationships with the fin aid office. You can’t get athletic $, but if they WANT you you will probably find that you will receive every $ you can be qualified for that might not have been offered as easily without a call from the athletic dept. Also, feel free to tell School A what School B offered you. One school actually told us to let them know if we got a better package somewhere else. I think that is the difference between those who are “recruited” at D3 and should expect playing time (maybe not Fresh year) and those who are simply accepted onto the team.</p>

<p>In our state the public D3’s don’t play the recruit game. The coaches don’t get that financial aid push because there are not the same kinds of grants etc available.</p>

<p>IF you love to play and are skilled, then give it a go. If you are not serious then don’t waste your time or the team’s.</p>

6

<p>It seems conceptually like it should be a lot less than d1 football. But, in the past years nescac coaches have been fired simply because they werent winning enough games. It is a competitive environment so I would imagine, despite not under scholarship, that playing d3 football would still be a major time commitment.</p>