Is JUCO Really the Next Best Option Outside of DI?

     Have you ever wondered why JUCO is the undisputed level right below Division I?  It is no secret that the first dog to the bowl of all major DI kickbacks are the junior colleges (NJCAA), but why?  Are they in desirable cities?  Do they have really nice facilities like small private high schools do? At least offer a higher level education while they play there?  The answers to all of these questions are no, and obvious ones at that.  JUCO's are notorious for being in small towns, having rundown facilities, and lacking amenities in general. On top of that, the only degree that you can get from a junior college is of course an associate degree.  It is to a point where similar to the military, the players learn to 'embrace the suck' often referring to themselves as 'JUCO Bandits.'  Despite all of the hype behind the JUCO route, players who do not receive the DI offer that they were hoping for are left after just two seasons without a school & still two years away from a bachelors degree, and that's assuming that all of your credits transfer to your new school once you do find it.  

    I do have to give the junior college level as a whole credit, one of the most amazing marketing campaigns that a lower level athletic league could ever pull off, bravo.  However, at the end of the day, all levels outside of Division I are 'JUCO' routes so to speak.  Contrary to the myth that some may believe, just because you commit to a four year university does not mean that you are committed to that level for at least three seasons, as you are at the DI level.  The only true reason to go to a junior college is if you were drafted relatively high out of high school and you would instead rather try your luck in the following year's draft.  That scenario obviously does not apply to most of you reading this article, so why would you feel better potentially fighting for a spot on the bench at the JUCO level when a Division II, III or NAIA school is rolling out the red carpet for you, basically begging you to take one of their starting spots?

    You hear about the guys like Mason Miller and how amazing it was that he made it to the MLB when he started at the Division III level, but I believe the main take away is that he used the playing time that he was given at Waynesburg to gather game reps & film to get him an offer from Gardner-Webb, a Division I program that he was eventually drafted out of.  Had Mason been stubborn and said "No, DIII is not a high enough level for me to start at, I am going to go walk on and fight for a spot at a JUCO", who knows if his baseball story even gets off the ground.  

    The ironic part of it all is that only about half the starters from a JUCO get the DI offer that they are looking for.  We are talking about 4-5 players per JUCO team going on to a DI team, and that number really only applies to the top end of JUCO programs.  The rest of the 30+ guys on the team either hang it up or end up at the DII or DIII they were trying to avoid out of high school.  Point is, the offer from that winning DIII team may not sound amazing coming out of high school, but was JUCO really the desired route to begin with?  Chances are if I showed you 4 logos and told you to pick out the two that are JUCO logos and the two that are DIII logos, you probably couldn't tell the difference.  So what is the true difference between the two leagues?  The answer is playing time!  The only way to continue to get looked at by a DI program is to continue to produce game film.  That is the whole selling point that turned the JUCO level into what it is today, "Don't sit on the bench at a DI for your freshman season, come play here for one or two seasons then transfer to a DI". The same opportunity applies to all of the sub DI levels. Do not get so wrapped in making a JUCO roster that you end up passing up on substantially better odds of playing time as a freshman at a division II or III program.