The Student Athlete (part 5): Athletic Scholarships and What You Need to Know
Ah, the dream: you’ve been playing your sport since you were 8 years old, putting in countless hours of practice, clinics, travel, and games and now the big payoff - you’re going to receive a full-ride scholarship to play your sport in college!
Well, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that it is possible to receive full scholarships in NCAA Division I & II (and NAIA and NJCAA levels). The bad news is that it just isn’t very common. Why? The NCAA has rules that limit the number of athletic scholarships and some sports rarely, if ever, offer full scholarships. Also, there are no athletic scholarships at all in NCAA Division III sports - but, merit aid can come in a different form... more on that below.
Athletic Scholarships - What You Need to Know
According to the NCAA, over $3.8 billion dollars in athletic scholarships are awarded annually to over 195,000 student athletes in Divisions I and II (NCAA Division III does not award athletic scholarships).
But, a few additional stats can help bring this statistic back down to earth:
Only about 2% of high school athletes are awarded athletic scholarships in college (NCAA - p. 30)
In Division I, only 58% of student athletes are on athletic scholarships.
In Division II, only 67% of student athletes are on athletic scholarships.
In Division III, no student athlete receives an athletic scholarship - they are not allowed. Though, student athletes often receive other forms of merit aid, more on this in a minute.
Full ride scholarships are typically awarded annually, meaning for 1 year at a time. Multi-year full scholarships are rare. This means that even if you receive an athletic scholarship, you’ll need to continue to “earn” it each and every college year.
Understanding Headcount vs Equivalency Scholarships
Headcount sports offer full scholarships to a limited number of players.
Non-headcount sports, aka equivalency sports, have a budget for scholarships that can be divided among many players, resulting in partial scholarships.
A headcount sport means that the school has restrictions placed on how many students may be on scholarship. A team can NOT divide those scholarships up to provide a greater number of students with partial scholarships. E.g. in NCAA Division I FBS Football there are 85 scholarships, which means 85 student athletes receive full scholarships; it is not possible to “split” some of the 85 scholarships to offer more students money. There are only a handful of headcount sports, and they are only available at the NCAA Division I level - think: men's football, women's gymnastics and volleyball, and men's + women's basketball.
Another way to think about headcount sports is that if you are participating on one of these teams and receive a scholarship, that scholarship will be a full scholarship. Is it possible to participate in a headcount sport and not be on scholarship? Yes. This is called being a "walk-on", e.g. a non-scholarship player. To continue our example, most Division I FBS Football teams have more than 100 players on their roster. The NCAA sets headcount scholarship limits at 85 players. Therefore, some amount of players - even on nationally known and recognised FBS Football teams as in our example - will NOT be on scholarship.
Sports with equivalency scholarships, on the other hand, have limited restrictions placed on the number of students that may receive scholarships, but there is a restriction on total scholarships. The way to think about this is a sport such as Division I baseball has the equivalent of 11.7 full scholarships, which the coach may then distribute as full and partial amounts to more than 11 players.
In practice, what this means is that outside of the very few headcount sports in Division I, not many college athletes receive full athletic scholarships.
Type | Sports | Scholarship Options | Example |
Headcount Sport | NCAA Division I Football (Division I FBS only) Basketball (Division I M & W) Tennis (Division I W) Gymnastics (Division I W) Volleyball (Division I W) | Full only | In NCAA Division I FBS Football there are 85 scholarships, which means 85 student athletes receive full scholarships |
Equivalency Sport | All other NCAA Division I sports NCAA Division II sports NAIA sports NJCAA sports | Partial (full is rare) | A Division I baseball team can have 11.7 scholarships. These can be divided amongst a maximum of 27 players. A typical baseball roster is more than 30 student athletes. Key takeaway: few, if any, students on a typical equivalency sport team receive a full athletic scholarship. |
FAQs
Answers to a few common questions about athletic scholarships...
What about NCAA Division III athletes?
Athletic scholarships are NOT a part of NCAA Division III sports. To compensate, Division III colleges often provide merit aid scholarships for academics, leadership, character, and other talents and achievements in lieu of athletic scholarships. The NCAA notes that 80% of Division III athletes receive some form of merit aid.
Can you lose your scholarship?
Short answer: yes. And it is more common than you might think. Some reasons - you become injured and cannot participate, you become academically ineligible (poor grades, not enrolled in enough classes, etc…), coaches or team priorities change, or you decide to stop playing sports. The majority of athletic scholarships are for one year and therefore the athlete + coach must agree to renew each year.
Are all sports teams and programs "fully funded"?
Limits the NCAA places on the number of athletic scholarships per sport are upper bounds, not guarantees. As an example, the NCAA specifies that Division I men's swimming programs can offer 9.9 scholarships (swimming is an equivalency sport). A team able to offer 9.9 scholarships would be considered "fully funded". But, many teams and programs aren't "fully funded", meaning that in practice they offer less full & partial scholarship opportunities than the rules allow - making the competition for these limited scholarship dollars even higher. Check with the program you're interested in to understand just how many scholarships they actually offer.
Scholarship exceptions of note
There are a few carve-outs to the scholarship rules above:
Ivy League colleges and universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc…) participate in Division I athletic but do NOT offer athletic scholarships.
Military service academies - all student athletes are technically on full scholarships at these colleges
Unfortunately, scholarship opportunities are NOT equal across men's and women's sports. They are tilted in favour of men’s athletics.
I found this chart from USA Today particularly helpful in understanding the scholarship opportunities across men’s and women’s sports at NCAA Division I FBS schools:
