Now that you’re getting closer to making a decision on where to play college ball, you’ll need to start narrowing down your college choices into a manageable number. Here are some resources that can help you do that.
Interest From College Coaches
One of the easiest ways to narrow down your options will happen naturally. If a coach or program is not interested in having you come play for them it clearly will not work. It’s for this very reason that you can’t be afraid to ask difficult questions and seek out the “no” from coaches. You can’t be scared of rejection. It’s better to find out if a program is an option rather than be strung along or have false hopes of something working out. In fact, rejection can work in your favor with the right mindset. We explain how here.
5 Steps to Finding Your Team
This article provides a step-by-step process to finding a school that matches your baseball and non-baseball interests. It is packed with information and tips, so read it first here.
College Baseball Insights and Roster Research
If you have it in your recruiting budget, using a 3rd party college research tool like College Baseball Insights can really simplify your search and save you time. By organizing data from every college baseball program and putting it into sortable and digestible graphics and charts, CBI can help you quickly determine programs that are a fit for you and programs that are recruiting players like you. It’s also a great tool for helping you ask informed questions to the programs who are recruiting you! If you can’t afford a tool like CBI, we explain how to do your own research on a program for free here.
My Big Future College Search
This website was launched by the College Board (the people who administer the SAT) in 2012 and is filled with ideas about choosing schools based on their characteristics. This website is easy to use and is totally free. It allows you to search thousands of schools, narrow your search using hundreds of different criteria, save your results, and even search schools based on the level of baseball offered. You can start by clicking here.
Your Friends and Family
Talk to older players who have graduated from your high school and are playing baseball in college. Talk to your older friends about their college choices. Talk to your parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, siblings, and anyone else you can think of. Ask them all about how they made their college choices and how it all turned out.
