The World of College Football

[kreed5120]

9 minutes ago, ZippyDoo said:

Playing around on Google today...

 

1,043,716 high school students play 11 player tackle football in the United States....

 

Division 1: 3.4 % (Roughly 1 in 30 high school players make it to a D1 program)

 

Division 2: 1.9 % ( Roughly 1 in 53 high school players)

 

Division 3: 2.5 % (Roughly 1 in 40 high school players

 

This seems crazy to see that it is "easier" to make it to a D1 program than a D2 program but this is explained by by the fact that there are more D1 schools in FBS and FCS than there are in D2 programs and the D1 programs carry larger rosters.

I'm not sure that's the correct way to look at it. 

 

Top 3.4% play D1

3.4%-5.3% play D2

5.3%-7.8% play D3

 

Anyone who played D1 likely had options to play D2 or D3. Most who played D3 didn't have options to play D1. Obviously there are exceptions. Therefore I would say D1 is naturally more challenging to get into even though it has a higher player count.

Edited October 29 by kreed5120

[Let'sGoZips94]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

Agreed. I was only joking. These stats are from a few years ago but are probably still pretty accurate in that only 7% of high school athletes will play college ball on any level. Less than 1% are good enough to go D1… but even at the D3 level you’re still watching the top 7% of athletes the country has to offer. 

 

D3 gets a little tricky because they don't (legally) offer athletic scholarships. There are guys attending Akron, Kent, Ohio State, etc., who aren't there to play sports, that are as or more athletic than most D3 athletes, but they couldn't afford or didn't want to pay the high tuition that comes with going the D3 route. 

 

On the flip side, a school like Hoban is a combination of many top athletes in the region (which is a VERY good HS football/athletics region) or even beyond because they can recruit. I remember when I was in an underclassmen at a greater Akron area high school, there were a couple kids in my class and the class below that were REALLY solid athletes that never made it to my high school because Hoban & St. V plucked them after middle school. Massillon would be another example of a NEO high school that could be in the argument against a D3 school, although in any scenario I think D3 ultimately wins out due to depth, age, size, etc. 

[Blue & Gold]

Yes. I’m on my phone so typing is kind of a drag, but I’ll try to explain my understanding of the statistics.

7% is the total number of college players. 

The bottom of that 7% would be playing D3.
From the 7% you whittle it down for players with D2 offers (for illustration let’s just say 5% of high schoolers.)

From that 5% you whittle it down further for players with FCS offers (let’s just say 2% of high schoolers).

And then from that 2% you finally whittle it down to ~>1% receiving FBS offers.

You could probably even whittle that ~1% even further if you separated players out w/ P5 offers as opposed to only G6 offers, but I’ve not seen stats on that.

 

Also, if fewer high schoolers are playing football nowadays than in years past that would also affect the percentage b/c the number of available scholarships would remain constant.

[ZippyRulz]

Mike Locksley out at Maryland, he is owed ~$10M

 

Dave Doeren out at NC State, he is owed ~$10M

 

Dave Aranda out at Baylor, he is owed ~$12M

 

Mike Norvell out at FSU, he is owed ~$50M

 

Phil Longo out at Sam Houston State, he is owed ~$2.8M

 

??? out at ???, he is owed ~$0.5M

 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:11 PM by ZippyRulz

[ZippyDoo]

On 10/29/2026 at 2:29 PM, Blue & Gold said:

Yes. I’m on my phone so typing is kind of a drag, but I’ll try to explain my understanding of the statistics.

7% is the total number of college players. 

The bottom of that 7% would be playing D3.
From the 7% you whittle it down for players with D2 offers (for illustration let’s just say 5% of high schoolers.)

From that 5% you whittle it down further for players with FCS offers (let’s just say 2% of high schoolers).

And then from that 2% you finally whittle it down to ~>1% receiving FBS offers.

You could probably even whittle that ~1% even further if you separated players out w/ P5 offers as opposed to only G6 offers, but I’ve not seen stats on that.

 

Also, if fewer high schoolers are playing football nowadays than in years past that would also affect the percentage b/c the number of available scholarships would remain constant.

Basically the easiest way I was always told to remember was this:

 

there are roughly 1 million kids that play 11 on 11 tackle football in high school in the US.

Of that 1 million approximately 1% of that will go on to play Division 1 football.   

Of the 1 % that play Division 1 football, only 1 % of that will go on to play in the NFL. 

only about 1 % of all players that play in the NFL, actually make it into the NFL.  

[ZippyDoo]

13 hours ago, ZippyRulz said:

Mike Locksley out at Maryland, he is owed ~$10M

 

Dave Doeren out at NC State, he is owed ~$10M

 

Dave Aranda out at Baylor, he is owed ~$12M

 

Mike Norvell out at FSU, he is owed ~$50M

 

Phil Longo out at Sam Houston State, he is owed ~$2.8M

 

??? out at ???, he is owed ~$600K

 

 

 

Can you imagine, 50 million dollars, to not work??????????? my goodness.....

[GP1]

5 hours ago, ZippyDoo said:

Can you imagine, 50 million dollars, to not work??????????? my goodness.....

Yes. I can imagine it. Where do I sign up. 

[Captain Kangaroo]

22 hours ago, ZippyDoo said:

only about 1 % of all players that play in the NFL, actually make it into the NFL.  

🤔