<p>I played sports throughout high school and I'm thinking about submitting my stats for track. I don't think my stats are good enough for division I, but I may try for division III. I looked up the racing times for the athletes at various schools and my time is actually in the middle of most results pages.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you get recruited to a division III sport do you have to commit to that sport all your years in college?</p></li>
<li><p>How much of a commitment is being on a Division III sports team? How often are practices? How often would practices be for an intramural?</p></li>
<li><p>If I'd like to be an Engineering major and plan to play sports casually, yet still compete from time to time, would it be better to join varsity athletics or would joining an intramural be better? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>While I am certainly not an expert (or even have any knowledge about track in college at all), I do know a little bit about college sports. My son was “recruited” if you can call it that by one D1 and a couple of D2 and D3. He was not offered $ to compete for the school even at the D1 (they don’t have scholarships in wrestling) and of course D3 doesn’t have $ for any sports officially. (by that I mean, it appears that some schools give academic scholarships when maybe other non athletes with the same or better stats didn’t get these). He went to one of the D3 schools and competed for two years. The coaches do have some pull with admission if you need that to get in, but there is not a firm commitment from either the coach to get you in or for you to play. You can quit the team at any time. In fact, you can even do that at the D1 level however if you are on an athletic scholarship, you would lose that when you quit the team.</p>
<p>The time commitment was quite a bit more than my son was expecting- which is why he quit. He knew how long the practices were, but did not realize that the Saturday tournaments that the coach mentioned would usually involve leaving the school Friday early afternoon and not getting back until Sunday morning.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you really talk to the athletes themselves at the schools you are considering to see what the time commitment is. The other watch out that should have given us a heads up, but we didn’t catch it, is that there were no seniors or juniors on the team. My son was one of 18 or so freshmen on the team, two returned for sophomore year and only one for junior year. The time demanded was just too great.</p>
<p>You mention intramural and varsity- but most schools have a level in between that is usually called “club”. It is more informal but you do compete against other schools. Many of my son’s friends who are serious students but didn’t want to totally give up their sport did this.</p>
<p>Many D3 schools are as or more competitive than many D1 schools so don’t assume you couldn’t get some $$$, however, there isn’t much money to go around for track. As for committing for 4 years, you commit a year at a time, even at the D1 level. Sure there is an assumption that you will run all 4 years at every level but things happen.</p>
<p>^^^
To be more specific, while the NCAA <em>permits</em> 9.9 (D1) and 9.0 (D2) wrestling scholarships, D1 and D2 schools decide for themselves whether and, if so, how much in terms of scholarships (capped by NCAA limits) they wish to invest in their wrestling program.</p>
<p>^^^^
Yes.<br>
That goes for all sports at all schools.
A school may or may not provide up to the maximum amount of scholarships.</p>
<p>Now we understand that by “they don’t have scholarships in wrestling” you meant the particular school in question.
I think most people would understand “they don’t have” to mean “such a thing does not exist.”</p>
<p>Yes, that particular school has no wrestling scholarships and very few athletic scholarships at all. I believe they had two basketball each for men and women.</p>
<p>D III schools recognize that being a student comes first. One can–although it is VERY bad form-- enroll and then tell the coach that you never want to join the team even on your first day. Of course you would be a pariah in the athletic department and if it is a small school, much broader than that, but there is nothing the college could or would do.</p>
<p>How much time? depends. Again being a student always comes first but some programs take it upon themselves with “captains’ practices” to train much more than the in season practices–and that trend is likely to continue as sports even in the D III become more competitive. Of course, how much you decide to join these elective practices is completely up to you.</p>