What Does Your Competition Look Like?

I throw a lot of statistics and numbers out there for parents and athletes. My goal in doing this is to help them understand the odds they are up against and just how difficult this process can be for some athletes. If you want to see some interesting numbers, make sure you subscribe to the "PRI Blog Pass" so you can take a look at some of the data I have been collecting on where athletes from Texas are playing volleyball.

I spend quite a bit of time talking about scholarships. How there is a max of 1,000 scholarships across all of D1 schools. That's a generous amount as we know that not all programs are fully funded; but it gives us a nice round number and we can go from there. Athletes that have a seemingly difficult time finding a home are usually Libero's and setter's.

We are looking at less than 4% of high school volleyball players playing in NCAA collegiate competition. I wanted to really quickly look at some roster breakdowns and try and paint a very general picture of what this looks likes at the college level for athletes in various positions.

Just looking at 2 rosters from random D1 schools here is what I found:

*I understand that the random roster's chosen and the small data that I'm collecting here is not going to be entirely accurate to the bigger picture, but I hope that it gives us a glimpse.

UT-Arlington

SFA San Houston

48 Total Athletes

OH - 35%

MB - 29%

RS - 4%

DS - 16%

Setter - 14%

So what does this mean? If we are looking at an average roster size of 16 athletes, then the breakdown for that team would look something like this:

16 Total Athletes

OH - 5.5

MB - 4.5

RS - 1

DS - 2.5

Setter - 2

These numbers aren't going to be exact of course, but you hopefully get the idea.

Now look at this on a greater scale. If there are 340 D1 programs in the country and those programs average 2.5 DS/Libero's per roster then we have roughly 850 DS's playing across the country at the D1 level. For setters that number is lower and for RS/Opp hitters that number is even lower (again it's a small sample size). Visually we see that 65% of a roster consists of OH's and MB's. The other 1/3 (35%) is made up of Setters, Libero's and Right Side hitters.

Division 2 numbers are not a ton different. I grabbed three school's randomly and here is what I found.

Angelo State

Nebraska-Kearney

Central Oklahoma

50 Total Athletes

OH - 34%

MB - 24%

RS - 6%

DS - 28%

Setter - 8%

The biggest difference here is the DS to setter ratio. 2 of the rosters seemed to be heavy on the Libero's and short of the setters. That happens with randomness. I'm sure that if I pulled more schools for more data points that would even out significantly. Still we have a situation where 60% of the rosters are made up of 2 positions groups while the other 40% is made up of 4 positions.

As we head toward the "midpoint" of the COVID eligibility impact on collegiate recruiting we will continue to see roster sizes and roster spots become an issue for graduating seniors. I think also, that most colleges when looking to fill open roster spots are going to be more focused on the OH/MB group than any other position. One setter here or there. One Libero here or there will be needed. One 3 rotation RS, if they can make a huge impact.

So when it comes to competition within any single position group, you aren't just competing against them. You are competing against the overall availability of your specific position.

For setters and Libero's specifically, I am always telling them to expand your list to more and more schools. You have fewer options to start. I think I will start adding 3 rotation right-side hitters to that list as well.

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