What's the general NTRP of a Div-III college player?

colonelforbin

colonelforbin

Rookie
Hey, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the general NTRP level of a Div-III college player would be? I realize NTRP would vary based on where someone plays on the team, but if there's a general level that Div-III is usually at I'd like to know.

There's a kid on my Varsity high school team who regards himself as being able to play Div-III college tennis, so if a can use this question as a way to approximate his NTRP level, I could hopefully use him as a basis to determine other's NTRP levels.

Thanks!
 
4.0 to 4.5 at least...I'd guess you might run into a 5.0 at DIV-III level. If you're over 5.0 you probably have the talent to make a DII or DI school on a scholarship.

I play in a 4.0 USTA League and occasionally I hit with a guy in his late 20's that played DIII tennis and we trade sets when we play...we're about the same skill level.
 
I play D-III tennis for a fairly strong team, best in conference, decent outside of conference, and have a 4.5 rating. I play 5th singles and second doubles. Our team is really deep and we have players around that level. There are plenty of terrible teams who would take a 3.5 on board and some stacked teams with 5.5's, Andy Murray's brother plays doubles with a kid who is D-III and there are some Davis Cup players in D-III who play for small countries. All in all its tough to say a NTRP per division but on average the kids we see are about 4.0-5.0 players.
 
colonelforbin said:
Hey, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the general NTRP level of a Div-III college player would be?

There's a kid on my Varsity high school team who regards himself as being able to play Div-III college tennis, so if a can use this question as a way to approximate his NTRP level, I could hopefully use him as a basis to determine other's NTRP levels.
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There's a D-3, even some D-1 programs out there, that even 4.0 players can make. So, yeah, if he's not too picky about where he goes to school, there's definitely a D-3 team out there that would have him. D-3 schools don't offer athletic scholarships, so unless he's very good, and they give him "academic" aid, he's going to be paying to play more or less.

The top guys in D-3, right now, are around 6.0. But after the very top guys, the drop is often very steep in D-3, way less deep than D-1 or even D-2. These strong players go to D-3 schools because they care a lot about education, and so they go to very demanding liberal arts-like schools that will give them "academic scholarships." Emory, Washington U, Rochester, Case Western, NYU, Gustavus, etc -- they're all top 50 schools in academics offering top notch private educations.

The strong, not powerhouse, teams, their numbers 5 or 6 are probably 4.5 or less sometimes.
DRtenniS1112 said:
There are plenty of terrible teams who would take a 3.5 on board and some stacked teams with 5.5's, Andy Murray's brother plays doubles with a kid who is D-III and there are some Davis Cup players in D-III who play for small countries. All in all its tough to say a NTRP per division but on average the kids we see are about 4.0-5.0 players.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they just won the San Jose doubles, right? That's amazing. It's amazing for D-1 players to do well, statistically it's incredibly rare, and so for a D-3 to win an ATP title, even in doubles, is... actually it's the first time it's ever happened. Flach and Seguso played D-2 though I think.

The guy who was ranked number 1 in D-3 about 5 years ago played Davis Cup for Cyprus I think.
 
It depends on the college.
There are D-1 schools that do not officially give athletic scholarship, e.g. Ivy League, though they may give academic financial aid to attract some athletes.
I also know there are D-2 schools that do give athletic scholarships.
 
My mum thinks I should go to University here (Australia) for a year, and in that year since it's not too packed, I should train hard and try and see if theres anything in US for my tennis, but I cbf.
 
depends on the school i think. i know some DII schools who have had what i would say 4.0 or 4.5 players. for DIII though, i think thats probably right around where you'd fit in.
 
I think there's probably a wide variability in DIII players. I live across the street from a DIII college and hit with the players there. As a 4.0, I am reasonably competitive with most of them, clearly better than a few, and blown off the court by a few.
 
I play Division 3. Our number 1 turnedown scholarship offers to D1 to play for us and gets free rackets from Wilson. So now and then a division3 college will get lucky with a player like this. Some of the colleges we play their bottom players feel like high school players. We can also beat some D-1 colleges.

Middlebury I think is division 3 but a very high quality one and one of the top in the nation.

So what I am saying is it all depends on what college you go to. Being from the UK I do not know the rating system here.
 
yeah there are some division III schools that are as good as division 1. Middlebury is a prime example, amherst, williams, bowdoin, etc. Especially the well educated schools, where good atheletes would go to get a better name.
 
Most DIII guys I play with are 4.0-4.5. Two nationally ranked DIII guys I know are probably 5.0 but have been allowed to play on my 4.5 team. I have seen a few DIII guys only be 3.5 level but the bulk are 4.0-4.5 in this area.

Usually the #1 guy on a good DIII team is 5.0 with the #2 guy being a 4.5 and the rest of the team in the 4.0 range. It really depends on how strong the team is. Some weaker teams could be mostly 3.5s and a couple 4.0s.
 
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35ft6 said:
Yeah, they just won the San Jose doubles, right? That's amazing. It's amazing for D-1 players to do well, statistically it's incredibly rare, and so for a D-3 to win an ATP title, even in doubles, is... actually it's the first time it's ever happened. Flach and Seguso played D-2 though I think.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I saw several of the doubles matches at the SAP Open live and this kid who played with Jaime Murray was Eric Butarac (sp?). He goes to some small obscure college in (of all places) Minnesota, which I can't even remember the name of. But he is a really, really good doubles player and that's why they won the title. I actually though he was a stronger player than Murray was. I would say this kid is at least a 6.5, if not 7.0 level player.
 
35ft6 pretty much summed it up.

At one of the schools he mentioned, we had a D1 player from Pepperdine transfer... He played first singles a few times during the two years he played with us, but most of the time it was other players (who beat him, not stacking). Many schools have 1st spot players who are very, very good. Some have two.
 
BreakPoint said:
Yeah, I saw several of the doubles matches at the SAP Open live and this kid who played with Jaime Murray was Eric Butarac (sp?). He goes to some small obscure college in (of all places) Minnesota, which I can't even remember the name of. But he is a really, really good doubles player and that's why they won the title. I actually though he was a stronger player than Murray was. I would say this kid is at least a 6.5, if not 7.0 level player.
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Adolphus Gustavus (sp?) or something. They have(had?) some quality players, Brett Morse-Karzen and Adam Morgan are two other great players I've seen from them apart from Eric.

You really can't judge the players ability based on the division. There will be far too many exceptions to any norm one defines.

Even the notion that a D3 team won't be as deep will be wrong sometimes... Although in our conference, we were the only team with a solid line-up of players, the rest dropped off after 3 or 4 (or even 1!).
 
According to USTA League rules for self-rating "elite" players, a current roster D-III player must self-rate at a minimum of 4.5.
 
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