How many colleges are there

Under another topic it was mentioned how many D1 colleges there were. I was curious, so I went to the NFCA.org website and did some counting. I thought I'd share the results. These are colleges that field a fastpitch team.

Div I - 290
Div II - 265
Div III - 408
NAIA - 211
------------- total 1174

Community C & JC - 477

So counting the community and junior colleges, let's say there are 1500 colleges with FP teams. Let's say each wants 2 pitchers. That's 3000 pitchers. . .but divided by 4 years that's only 750 high school seniors that get to go on and be pitchers in college each year (scholarship or not). That's still pretty elite.

-W

Say the average team size is 16. Then a 4-year college needs between 4 and 5 new players per year (a bit more than 4 because there can be injuries, and in the non-scholarship div3 some may leave the team early). That makes for about 5000 new players per year in 4-year colleges. (Some are transfers from 2y colleges.)

The community and junior colleges need twice as many, since players stay only 2 years. If each team needs 8+ per year, that gives 4000 new players per year in 2-year colleges. (Probably slightly less.)

If a team carries 3 pitchers, then somewhere between 1 in 5 and 1 in 6 players is a pitcher. This makes for roughly 900 pitchers/year in 4y colleges, 650 pitchers/year in 2y colleges.

Slightly rosier than starsnuffer's numbers, but still not something you should bet your whole future on.

According to one recruiting site, there's about 5,000 scholarships. There's about 366,000 high school players, and about 16,000 college players (NCAA only stats - doesn't include NAIA).

So, playing in college, at whatever level, is truly something to be proud of. If your player makes it there, they have beaten the odds.