Alex Swenson breaks down college baseball recruiting odds: only 2% of high-school players reach each division level. He covers five essentials: know your program options, develop skills coaches measure (physicality, metrics, athleticism, game performance), build exposure through video, use academics as a differentiator (3.5 GPA beats 2.9), and get recruiting guidance instead of going blind.
Questions this video answers
About 9–10% overall.
About 1,600 programs.
About 2% at each level (Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA, JUCO).
11.7 scholarships (to be divvied among roughly 27 players).
He contrasts a ~2.9–3.0 GPA with a 3.5 GPA.
Chapters
Hey, how you doing Alex here? Thanks for joining me. And do you know only 9 to 10% of high school baseball players go on and play at the college level each and every year. It is very, very competitive and that is at all of the levels. So only 9 to 10% make it to juco. Naia, Division 3, Division 2, Division 1. It's about 2% around at each level there. So 2% of Division 1, 2% of Division 2, 2% of Division 3, NAI and juco there. So again, very, very competitive. And that is why I do what I do to help high school baseball players and their parents go through this process. And that's why I wanted to make this a video to help you create an edge in this recruiting process because you need it. All right? It is tough out there. It is really tough out there. So I want to help, I want to be here to help you go through this. So there's five things that I'm going to cover to help you through this process. And number one, to give yourself an edge is just understanding all of the baseball programs that are out there. There's 1600 college baseball programs out there. That is amongst all of the levels that I have mentioned. And there are so many possible opportunities that could have and that could happen for you if you're open minded to this and you're open to look at all of the levels as you go through this. I know and understand, okay, that everybody wants to play at the highest level that they possibly can. And a lot of people are focused on Division 1 and maybe even the Power 5 schools. And that's great and all, but if you're only focused on those in the Power 5 schools, you could potentially be closing doors on other great opportunities that you could get at a mid major program, a Division 2 program, Division 3 program, an NAI program, a JUCO program. So don't close doors that don't need to be closed and don't miss opportunities if you could possibly have great opportunities elsewhere. So be open minded and understand that there are a lot of great programs. So do your research. Number two is skill development. We have to have skills to play at the next level. And the beautiful thing, there are all different tiers, as I mentioned, from the Division 1 all the way down to juco. So hey, focus on your skill development and improve your skills at your position. A lot of us might be multi position, but there's probably a primary position that you play and really focusing on that, especially as we get into our sophomore and junior year that is kind of the thick of the college recruiting process really honing in. But even before that, if you're watching this and you're a freshman, freshman or even eighth grade and below, skill development is crucial. And this never changes whether you're even a senior in high school and in college. Skill development has to be the foundation of the recruiting process or whatever you're doing as far as in the recruiting process or your sport in particular. Baseball right now is what we're talking about. Developing your skills and also understanding what these college coaches want when they go out and recruit. There's six things I'm going to dive into this real quick, okay? The first one is your physicality. How do you look? Do you look physical? Do you look like you've been in the weight room? Number two is your metrics. Okay? They're going to take a look at your metrics as they go through this and see where you compare based off what they have recruited in the past. Their job is to bring in the best players and better players each and every year. Number three is your athlete. Athleticism. How athletic are you? You need to be an athlete. They want athletes. Okay? That is very, very important in this process. And number four is your game performance. Honestly, this could be the most important part of this is, hey, how do you perform in game and how do you perform against good competition? Number five is your academics. Your academics has got to be on par. I'm going to talk about this here soon. And number six is your character. They got to make sure that they're bringing in a guy of high character and that they want to be around. You're going to spend a lot of time with these coaches, all right? Number three is maximizing your exposure. Hey, if nobody knows about you or nobody can see you, it doesn't matter. Do not be the person that sits back and just hopes that they're going to be found. Hey, that does not work for 99.9% of us. That is not a good strategy. Okay? Yes. There's, of course, exceptions out there that the guys that are freshmen in high school, that are six two that already have a beard and throwing 90 miles an hour, they're going to get picked off. Okay? Absolutely. But again, for the majority of us, that is not the way to go. We have to help ourselves go through this or have somebody help you go through this process to get to your exposure. So exposure is video. Having your highlight video, having it short and sweet, impactful, showing your best qualities as a player and your best plays as a player. Also utilizing Social media and participating Twitter. Most college coaches are on Twitter. Not all, but most college coaches are on Twitter. Making sure you have your profile there, make sure you have your pinned video on there as well, and that you are communicating with college coaches there. Number four is academics. This is a huge separator. Let me give you a quick example. Player A and player B are very comparable as a player and as an athlete on the field. Okay, let's just use an example as a catcher, right? This catcher is really good. This catcher is really good. They have the same pop time. They have the same pretty much swing and pop and gap to gap power. But they are pretty similar receiving. They're pretty similar blocking, controlling a pitching staff, everything from their speed, like they're comparable. But the one separator is the academic side. Player A, all right, is not as good as player B. From academic side, they have a 2.9 or 3. 0. This player, all right, which is the same pretty much player, has a 3. 5, okay? The 3. 5 is obviously better than the 2.9 or 3. 0 plus. This could get academic money, all right? Academic money is huge in this recruiting process. There's not a lot of athletic money in baseball. There's only 11.7 scholarships that these college coaches can divvy out among 27 guys. And that's if they're fully funded. And most schools are not fully funded, which means they don't have 11.7 scholarships. They're below that. So if you can come in with academic money and you're doing really good in school, that can help distribute other athletic money elsewhere or give you a little bit and you can stack on top of it. You could stack an athletic scholarship and an academic scholarship if the school allows that going through. So academic is huge, huge, a huge edge in this recruiting process. And number five is don't go blind at this process. Have somebody help you go through this process, whether that is your travel ball coach or your high school coach or a person like me. Doesn't have to be me. I do that, but it doesn't have to be me. Have somebody help you so you don't have to go blind at this process. Because the fact of the matter is most parents and student athletes are just going blind out of this. They don't really know where they fall or fall fit from an athletic standpoint or from a college fit standpoint. They don't know who's recruiting their position because not all schools are recruiting each and every position each year. It fluctuates depending on their roster. Guys leaving the program, guys coming into the program, et cetera. Now we have the transfer portal, all these certain things. And you being proactive in this process and having somebody kind of help you, direct you is. It can be a big separator, can give you a really big edge. So if you know somebody out there that has done a good job and that helps and is transparent and that. And it's honest with you going through this, that is a huge, huge edge. So hopefully you got something from this video. Hopefully this helps you going forward and you can do your research on these schools. Because this is. This is. It was so impactful for me being a college athlete that this is why I do. What I do is to help athletes get to the next level. And everything that comes with being. Being a student athlete in college, from the relationships that you build, I mean, I have lifelong brotherhoods that I've been to weddings and godfathers and all this stuff. It's just amazing. The mentors that you get, from the upperclassmen leadership to the coaches, the life skills that you develop and the teamwork environment, going after a goal is a huge, huge benefit for you. After baseball, just it's been day because eventually we're going to stop playing this game of baseball. And having these certain skills and relationships and network can really help you, propel you in whatever career you're going in after baseball. So again, hope this helps you and I will see you in the next video. Take care.
