Weak Division 1 Universities

[jw-simon]

Hello all. I recently received an offer from a college in the NAIA to play for them in the fall of 2013(Mens) . I'm currently weighing up my options for next year and the year after.

Here's a little bio on myself-I'm ranked in the top 20 of my country(average tennis country) under18(boys).I train hard and I'm improving all the time.
I'm in my senior year of high school and I want to get a scholarship to a university(div 1 or 2) in 2013 or 2014.I know I am good enough to play college tennis.


Through research I have found numerous people saying that there are some weak to very weak universities in D1 ncaa. I am from an average Tennis country in Europe and I'm not familiar with the standards.
Obviously I know that UCLA,USC and Stanford play at a huge standard but the further down the rankings I have less knowledge.
Could anyone list some Ok standard and weak standard D1 and D2 universities for me(particularly in the middle/southern states of america) ?

Would I be able to receive a scholarship to these universities(ntrp 4.5/5.0) ?
If I thought that they would take me then I would probably choose the higher ranked school for academic purposes !
Thank you for reading my post !

[andfor]

I understand you being an international U.S. tennis prospect you are trying to determine your options and the understanding of the American college system and college tennis can be very vague. But you have to understand that due to many factors we do now know about your academic, tennis background, and career interests. Financial support is another factor as some schools cost upwards of $50K before scholarship. Compare that against the very large amount of D1 schools your question is almost impossible to answer.

Here's some things to think about. NAIA tennis and in many instances the academics can be very good. If it's your goal of going to a D1 school you could tell the coach that up front and see if he's open to you playing for him a year or two and transferring to D1. He may even be willing to help. If that's your intent and you sign to attend and play NAIA I would make that clear with the coach first.

You may also look on http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/team...028BE07B9CD6C5 and start your own research here. You can find the coaches contact info on their respective college sports websites.

Alternatively, many of the top junior colleges have a good success rate of placing their better players at D1 programs after 2 years.
NJCAA - http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/team...sp?division=17
California Community Colleges - http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/team...sp?division=13

Lastly, if you have help of a local coach where you live that may have played tennis in the states you should reach out to them and see if they may have guidance.

[goran_ace]

Scholarship limits have been discussed here before but one thing not often mentioned is that not all tennis programs are fully-funded. Schools can offer a maximum of four and a half scholarships for the men's tennis team, but there is no minimum . So at weak DI program there might only be funding for one or two scholarships and that would be divided as partials among a bunch of guys, so unless you are good enough to play #1 or #2 as a freshman, it might be tough to get offered a half-scholarship at a school like that because there is that much less money to go around.

[tennisjon]

Some D1 schools don't even have scholarships. There is no obligation for D1 schools to offer them. That being said, there are some weak D1 schools like Wagner College in NY and some other schools in their conference. I coach D3 at Drew University and we beat their 1st doubles team from last year 8-2 in a match this year after they transferred to a different school.