DI OR BUST?

Over the last 15 years, Hard 90 Baseball has had the opportunity to train over 2,000 athletes in the Sacramento region with over 400 of those athletes going on to play collegiate or professional baseball. With that said, we have witnessed many athletes with the DI or bust mentality.

Coach Oliveira's recent twitter post inspired us to break down the numbers of the probability of earning a DI college baseball scholarship:

Note: these numbers shared by Coach Oliveira are consistent with the conversations we have had with DI coaches over the years on their scholarship allocation by positions.

As you can see from Coach Oliveira's tweet, college baseball programs value pitching for over 1/2 of their precious scholarship dollars - with middle infield and outfield following. Middle infielders and outfielders tend to follow pitching due to the athleticism and versatility these players offer teams.

Following the breakdown shared by Coach Oliveira, you can see that in a given year total Division I scholarships can range from a low of 3,772 to a high of 8,019 available to ALL collegiate baseball players. These scholarships are for all collegiate players from incoming freshman to seniors.

If you assume that colleges allocate 1/4 of all scholarships equally across all classes, 869 - 2,005 DI scholarships are available to incoming freshman.

So when you calculate the chance of earning a DI scholarship, factoring in that there are on average 492,000 high school baseball players - the chances are .41% to earn any kind of baseball scholarship... or for every 1,000 high school baseball players - 4 will earn a partial scholarship. Further is you assume that there are 20 players on a high school baseball roster - for every 12 high school teams - 1 player will earn a partial DI college baseball scholarship.

That said, if your goal is to earn a DI college baseball scholarship - you need to be willing to do what only .41% of the high school baseball players in the country are willing to do. That specifically means choosing the road less traveled by outworking others - finding coaches that know how to help you on the journey. Your competition for the DI scholarship is not just the guys on your team or even in your league! Your competition is your city, your county, your state and at the most competitive DI programs the rest of the country.

Make 2022 your best year yet and pursue your DREAM!

Established in 2005, Hard 90 Baseball has a track record of laying the foundation to develop gritty players that go on to have success in baseball (over 400 players that have gone on to collegiate and professional baseball) and life. If you are interested in your player developing grit through baseball - check out our Combine for high school players and our travel teams for youth players.

The Hard 90 Mindset is an Amazon best selling book that helps athletes achieve their full potential on the field and in life beyond.