College roster sizes

[CoogansBluff]

Was just looking at a roster for a D-1 mid-major school where the sister of one of my former players is playing. Noticed the team had 24 players on the roster. That's probably more than average, but certainly not unusual. Went to a couple of UNC games this year, and they had about 25 players dressed out.

Why so many? Is the philosophy to bring in as many as you can in hopes that this will give you the best shot of putting 9 quality players on the field? Is it because of high attrition? What is it like to be the #21 player on a 24-player team? What is the motivation to keep playing?

If a D-1 school has 24 on the roster, what would you guess the scholarship allotment is? How many are essentially walk-ons?

 

[chinamigarden]

I think a fully funded softball program has the equivalent of something like 12 scholarships. So of those 25 girls 2-3 might have full rides the rest have some fraction of a scholarship or nothing. My guess is that of those 25 at least 6 get no athletic money

 

[marriard]

Was just looking at a roster for a D-1 mid-major school where the sister of one of my former players is playing. Noticed the team had 24 players on the roster. That's probably more than average, but certainly not unusual. Went to a couple of UNC games this year, and they had about 25 players dressed out.

Why so many? Is the philosophy to bring in as many as you can in hopes that this will give you the best shot of putting 9 quality players on the field? Is it because of high attrition? What is it like to be the #21 player on a 24-player team? What is the motivation to keep playing?

If a D-1 school has 24 on the roster, what would you guess the scholarship allotment is? How many are essentially walk-ons?

Yeah, all those things... plus some redshirts who still dress out, plus some specialists (at least one coach I know has some of the athletic team dress as pinch runners), plus some girls who contribute to the team in some way but wont play (physical therapy student is an example I have seen). Even a 'club' player or two just there in case of a spate of injuries. You like a sizable roster because you can't just pick up someone like you can in travel - you have to have an eligible player who has gone through the NCAA clearinghouse process and is academically eligible and some place on campus - and doesn't have class conflicts.

How is it being #21 player? Depends on your personal expectations I guess but for most it sucks. I know some who say they just want to be 'part of something'. Some who enjoy the access to program facilities. Some who do it for a year so they can say they did. Some just happy to be there or are helping out.

I would guess close to 10 are walk-ons or are getting so close to nothing that it might as well be nothing.

If you want to see the real roster size go to an away-away game (i.e. flying there). There normally wont be anywhere near the extras they would locally.

It isn't hard to get to a big roster. Just looked a local roster from the end of last year. It was made up as follows:

- Regular Starting 8 (included a part time 4th pitcher for the team who started at 3B)
- 3 full time pitchers
- back up catcher, 2 backup OF, 2 backup MIF, backup 3rd & 1st (including 3 players who got regular PH spots)
- 2 speed demon pinch runners who entered a lot of games but didn't have an official at-bat
- 2 injured earlier in season
- 2 red shirts
- 5 girls who recorded stats but weren't with the team at season end.

That is 24 + 5 so 29 girls got stats for the team last season.

 

[Indiana]

Are there JV teams at all? Would some of the girls on the roster have opportunities to play in JV or club games?

 

[cendro]

I was told that sometimes an AD will tell a Coach to carry a certain # of players to meet Title 9 requirments whether the Coach wants to or not...

 

[Jquick823]

I was actually told by a D1 AC who just moved schools that the required (not sure if conference or school) roster size is 25. Also at this school most players have 3.7 GPA or higher so there isn't a ton of academic money. This is also a 8.5 scholarship school when the money is figured out. I was told this because this D1 coach is a friend. The conference has a few top 25 programs also.

 

[Greenmonsters]

My DD's D3 team generally rosters approx 15 players. DD is on a full ride (courtesy of DW, me, and Uncle Sam).

 

[BobInMadison]

There are quite a number of reasons why a young lady would want to be deep pine on a D-I program, rather than starting on a "lesser" program.

My oldest DD has a list of colleges she is willing to attend: one. She wants to attend the local school, UW Madison, and will not even consider any other school. For her, attending this school is MUCH more important than playing softball, in fact I don't think she would want to be on the UW team even if they wanted her.

Every year, the school takes in thousands of freshmen, about half of them female. Of those thousands, a number of them played varsity softball at HS, and many were on TB teams, even some top-notch teams.

Meanwhile, the college has 24 ladies on the roster, mostly from top TB teams in other parts of the country. Not many local girls get a shot with the team, although sometimes a local girl will be the star of the team.

What do the other softball players do? Realize, there are probably quite a few ladies every year who could've played for a lesser D-I, or a D-II, D-III, etc. school, but chose to attend the big school, knowing they would almost certainly never make the team.

Some of the ladies try other sports. For example, a very good local 1B is on a rowing scholarship, and she will join quite a few former softball players on the crew team.

Many of them play club softball. There are clubs in the school, some of them quite competitive. I would wager at least a few of the club teams are better than some D-III teams, since D-III is a large barrel and the teams at the very bottom aren't very good.

Some of them hang up their cleats, and give up organized sports. Hopefully they at least do something to stay in shape.

A very, very, very few of them wind up on Deep Pine on the Badger softball team. The Deep Pine ladies are often diamonds in the rough, waiting to be polished by the coaches. Some of them are very fast, and will at least pinch run. Some will develop into strong softball players, and will get serious playing time by their JR or SR years. Some will last a year or two and leave the team, voluntarily or having been cut.

So, that is why a young lady might want to be Deep Pine on a D-I team rather than a starter for a "lesser" team.

(I put "lesser" in quotes, since we all know the top D-II and even D-III teams are better than the worst D-I teams. For example, DS will be on a D-III rowing team in the fall that regularly beats D-I teams, and sends boats to the D-I and D-II championships every year. I think one year they had a boat that beat Harvard in a race on the Charles River, and Harvard is the very top rowing school.)