According to an NCAA survey, 43% of D1 Softball players had their first recruiting contact in ninth grade or earlier. Another 35% had their first contact as sophomores. That means over 3/4s of all D1 sophomore players are being recruited by their sophomore year. This explains why, on average, D1 Softball players make their verbal commitments before the end of their sophomore year. I’m not saying it’s right. It’s crazy as far as I’m concerned. But that means softball players need to get their recruiting act together early!
College Softball Recruiting Timeline
When is it too late? When do you know that you should give up on playing D1 and start looking elsewhere because you haven’t heard from any coaches? While there will always be those who say “never say never” right up to the moment they find themselves enrolling in whatever last minute college they could get into, the truth is that most athletes are willing to face reality and move on once they know when. The questions is when is “when?” Thanks to an NCAA Survey completed last fall, athletes have a better estimate of “when” for most sports.
Just before Christmas I shared some information from the 
Anyone interested in playing college baseball needs to head over to 
When looking at this recruiting timeline, keep in mind this is geared for baseball players. In many ways, your senior high school baseball season will not count. The majority of coaches (not all) will have already filled their recruit classes for the following year (your college freshman year). Depending on the division and conference (think “power 5”) they may have already filled the slots for the year after that (your college sophomore year) and only have a few left for the following year. Yes, college baseball coaches are taking verbal commitments from high school sophomores. 
