College Sports Odds

Understanding the Real Odds of High School Athletes Reaching College Rosters

Just 7% of high school athletes will compete on a college roster at any level, while only 2% will earn a National College Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic scholarship, or an even smaller fraction will go pro. This process involves years of work and thousands of dollars from parents in fees, travel, and other costs. Football was the most popular high school sport, with over 1 million high school students competing in 2022-2023 and over 96,000 going on to play in college. However, more schools sponsor collegiate teams does not mean longer odds. Recent policy changes have allowed college athletes to earn money from competing at that level, through scholarships or payments for their name, image and likeness. However there are caveats to these numbers, as only 70% of female high schoolers go on to college, while about half of male high school males go on their own.

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