Travel baseball is now the primary pathway to college baseball.
Yes, it’s expensive, and, yes, it marginalizes some of the greatness that the game of baseball offers – like team camaraderie and situational awareness. But if you want to play in college these days, you are much more likely to get recruited in the summer and fall than during the high school season.
New England Baseball Journal tracked college commitments for the seven months (April through October) when baseball is played most in the region. During the three months of the high school baseball season (April through June), we counted a total of 45 college commitments among New England prospects. During the months of August, September and October, we counted 154.
The NCAA influenced the recruiting calendar in 2023 when it implemented a rule stating that D1 coaches could no longer offer players scholarships before Aug. 1 of their respective junior years of high school. That further cemented summer as the prime evaluation season for college coaches, while the fall now serves as a time to finalize incoming recruiting classes.
