There are more than 110 amazing juco's in California.....most of them have incredible athletic programs......check them out.
California Juco's are under tremendous budget stress. Many students cannot take classes they want due to limited sections and the system cannot afford to hire the teachers needed to service the student. Ilinois JUCO's are light years ahead of the ability to serve the student population. California Juco'...for the most part....are a mess right now. Plus most California Juco football programs are football factories which draw hundreds of kids and graduate maybe 20 or 30. California Juco's are known for turning out tremendous football players and are based on that ideal...turn out Divison I prospects. But they are also known for their extremely high dropout rate. If you are not Division 1, do not expect to succeed at a California JUCO.
Take College of DuPage for example. They may bring in 90 freshman but they graduate 35 to 40....that is almost 40%. Maybe 20 of the 40 would go on to play College football but it is not about playing at a 4 year school. It is about getting kids to take their education seriously. The going rate of success in the average college (2 or 4 year) is 50%. Remember that football is often taking the worst and most at risk students and tryign to get them to be successful students. I argue that football is more successful than the school educating the general population due to these extenuating factors.
I would send my son to COD way before I ship them out to some California JUCO. Most Illinois Juco's football programs back in the day had similar success rates. Most JUCO's in Illinois saw the 40% success rate as low and dropped football without looking at their own student population success rate. It is a shame.
Most people have a negative view of JUCO football and are grossly misinformed about the value it had on getting kids into school and getting kids to think about their future education and ability to get a job. The other big thing that most people don't realize is that JUCO football players in Illinois did not get scholarships. They had to pay their own tuition just like the general population. If you were an out-of-district student...you paid two to three times more for tuition. So it was not like schools were giving away education to out of state or out of district students.
