“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” —Sydney J. Harris
There may not be a greater myth in the world of education than the myth that you will get a better education at a D1 school. Yes, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford and the like are all world-class institutions of learning. You will get no argument from me about that. However, to assume that you will get a better educational and athletic experience at those schools is simply an uneducated thought.
A parent made a comment to me last week that more millionaires come out of D1 institutions than D2 and D3 per an article they read from Dave Ramsey, so D1s must be better schools. I honestly would be shocked if that wasn’t the case if we simply read that statement with zero context. However, let’s examine the argument with eyes wide open:
- The average annual enrollment of a NCAA D1 school is approximately 9000 students.
- The average annual enrollment of a NCAA D2 school is approximately 2500 students.
- The average annual enrollment of a NCAA D3 school is approximately 1750 students.
[All per NCAA.org]
When we understand the context that D1s graduate 3.5x more students than D2s graduate and 5x more than D3s, then of course D1 schools are going to produce more millionaires simply because they are bigger and enroll more students.
For example, if two basketball players both tell you they each made 100 shots today, you might think they are both great shooters. When you find out that one player took 1000 shots and the other only took 200 shots to make their 100 shots, you would quickly realize that the player who made 100 of 200 attempts is probably a better shooter.
I went into the web to research some of the facts out there from some respectable sources, and these are some of the interesting evaluations I found:
From U.S. News and Report:
Best Medical Research Schools
- Baylor (D1)
- Case Western (D3)
- Emory (D3)
Best Law Schools
- Stanford (D1)
- Yale (D1)
- University of Chicago (D3)
From Money Magazine:
Best Engineering Schools
- Georgia Tech (D1)
- MIT (D3)
- Colorado School of Mines (D2)
US News and Report ranked 7 D3s in their top 26 colleges in the country this year including #2, #6 and #9.
I have attended, worked or coached at the NCAA D1, D2, D3 and NAIA levels, and I experienced world class educators, amazing students, and breath-taking facilities at each level. I have former players who did not attend Top 50 ranked schools who are now some of the top doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers in their respective fields and many have created million-dollar portfolios for themselves within 10-15 years of graduating.
What you need to understand is that every college and university in the country devotes an immense amount of time and resources to researching and interviewing the best educators in the country. There are many great law and medical professors who choose not to work at Harvard because they don’t want to live in Boston or because their family lives in Mississippi or Colorado, and they want to practice and work close to home or have smaller professor to student ratios. Some just want a warmer climate or want better traffic or more green spaces!
You may argue that D1s have more money, so they are able to create a better learning experience. My response to you would be the fact that MIT (D3), WashU (D3), Johns Hopkins (D3), University of Chicago (D3), and Emory (D3) all rank in the Top 20 in the country in endowment size. Yes, all of those schools have a savings account that exceeds $9 Billion.
Do you want to take a guess to where a lot of those donations come from? You got it…alumni who have gone on to make millions of dollars and have given back to their alma mater. Imagine how big the percentage of millionaires those schools must have when they have 5x less alumni than huge D1s.
The true value proposition for you aspiring college athletes is to digest is that less than 1% of you will get an offer to play D1. Less than 8% will get an offer to play D2, and less than 15% of you will get an offer to play D3.
In the end, you can and will get a world-class education at all college levels and most schools will provide world-class teachers and facilities. The question is what you will do with the opportunity that is in front of you.
If you’re one of the lucky ones to get any offer to play in college, don’t let anyone tell you that your ceiling is limited because it’s not D1.
Interested in Coach Rogers’ Book on College Recruiting? You can find it here: https://coachmattrogers.com/book/
Want to schedule a free 30-minute strategy session with Coach Rogers? You can do so here: https://coachmattrogers.com/contact/
