Is D3 your best bet? · KICKERSCAMP: Kicking Skool

Is D3 your best bet?

If you’re a student-athlete, I think the answer is “yes”. No matter who you are or how good you are.*

Why?

Because the NCAA Division I football and basketball programs have become professional sports. But unlike the NFL or NBA, there aren’t any guidelines to contracts and no safeguards for players, coaches or programs. It really is the Wild West right now. Kids and coaches leaving in mid-season. Conference champs become doormats in a single season because everyone jumped ship.

Meanwhile, NCAA Division III still holds on to its non-scholarship status and conferences and rivalries remain intact.

Why is that important? Because to be a student-athlete, you actually have to be a student. Tough to do if you’re flying out on a Thursday (missing your Thursday and Friday classes) to play on a Saturday, then to fly back on Sunday and catch your Monday morning class… and repeat. Good luck with your GPA.

In D3, Programs stay intact. Coaches remain in their jobs. Your teammates remain your teammates and your classes, classmates and professors actually mean something to you.

The portal and NIL kill that romantic notion… it’s just that the NCAA doesn’t want to face up to the truth just yet — that they ARE pro sports now.

And know what? That’s a-OK. Seriously. Getting paid well for something you do extraordinarily well is honest and deserved. The money is there because of the level of talent that we’re willing to pay to watch.

But everything comes at a cost. As my father often said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

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If you're a 5-star high school recruit or Juco superstar, perhaps your best bet is to get paid. Right away. Nothing wrong with that. Go to a P5 school — take the money and run, literally, but don't expect too much from your "education" at a DI school.
To those that ask, "no matter how good you are?" If you're good enough for the NFL (or NBA), trust me, they will find you and sign you. D1, D2 or D3. You still have to earn the job.

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