Athletic Scholarships: Everything You Need to Know

Receiving an athletic scholarship to compete at the college level is the ultimate goal for many student-athletes. However, there are plenty of misconceptions about how scholarship offers work—and how much aid student-athletes actually receive.

College isn’t cheap, so understanding the details of this part of the process is important if you’re looking to lessen your college costs. Check out our complete guide to athletic scholarships below.

Who gives out athletic scholarships?

Athletic scholarships are offered at the NCAA D1 and D2 levels, as well as at the NAIA and NJCAA levels—combined, that’s thousands of schools.

View the table below for a breakdown of the number of scholarships offered for each athletic association.

Learn about the different division levels. For more on athletic scholarships, hear what former fifth-round MLB draft pick Kyle Winters has to say: Are athletic scholarships offered one year at a time or do they vary? Check out the video to see how prospective student-athletes may find their scholarship offer change from year to year. 

How much scholarship money can you get?

Fewer than 2 percent of high school student-athletes are offered athletic scholarships, but it adds up to over $2.7 billion annually for D1 and D2 alone, so there’s certainly money out there. However, it’s important to understand that most athletic scholarships are not full rides. The amount you’re offered has a lot to do with your sport and whether it is a head count or equivalency sport.

• Head count sports are always full rides. But they only include revenue sports: for men, that’s D1 basketball and D1-A football; for women, it’s D1 basketball, tennis, volleyball and gymnastics.
• Equivalency sports usually hand out partial scholarships. It’s up to the coach to divide their scholarship money among athletes. That could mean they offer a full ride to one extremely high-level recruit (although that is rare), or it could mean they spread the money out among multiple athletes, which is much more common. Equivalency sports for D1 men include baseball, rifle, skiing, cross-country, track and field, soccer, fencing, swimming, golf, tennis, gymnastics, volleyball, ice hockey, water polo, lacrosse and wrestling. For D1 women, equivalency sports include bowling, lacrosse, rowing, cross-country, track and field, skiing, fencing, soccer, field hockey, softball, golf, swimming, ice hockey and water polo. All D2 and NAIA sports are equivalency sports. This article details some ways coaches decide on scholarship amounts.

As a response to COVID-19, NCAA D1 Council adopted legislation that loosened regulation regarding need-based aid and academic scholarships being awarded to student-athletes. Starting August 1, 2020, teams in equivalency sports will not have any athletes’ need-based aid and academic scholarships count against the maximum athletic scholarship limit. Prior to this update, athletes had to meet certain academic criteria for their additional aid to not be counted against a team’s athletic scholarship limit.

This means student-athletes will not be limited in how much need-based aid and academic scholarships they can stack on top of their athletic scholarship. With school and family budgets being impacted by the coronavirus, this rule change should allow sports programs that have available funds to extend more money to families and athletes—especially at colleges with higher tuition costs. This also makes it more important than ever for potential recruits to obtain strong grades and test scores. This will allow them to secure more scholarship funds and aid even when athletic scholarship funds are not available.

How do you get a full-ride athletic scholarship?

Most student-athletes do not receive a full-ride scholarship—in fact, only 1 percent do. Still, full-ride scholarships as the goal for many athletes, as they typically cover tuition and fees, books, room and board, supplies, and sometimes even living expenses.

If you receive a scholarship for a D1 headcount sport, you’re guaranteed a full-ride. But there are only six headcount sports. If you play an equivalency sport, you can increase your chances of getting more scholarship money. For example, if you fill a specific and important role on the team—such as a baseball or softball pitcher—you’re more likely to receive a larger offer. You can also use the leverage of multiple recruiting offers to get coaches to increase the amount they are willing to give you. Sometimes, just moving down a division level will get you more money. A lower-level recruit for D1 might receive a larger scholarship at the D2 level.

Ivy League schools

Coaches can help their prospective athletes obtain financial aid rewards, but they do not have any scholarship money to give out to them.

In many cases, Ivy League schools are able to meet the majority of the cost of tuition; at most, families with an annual income less than $65,000 don’t make any contribution to their student-athlete’s education, while families with an annual household income between $65-$180,000 could be expected to contribute somewhere between 10 to 18 percent.

In other words, don’t let a lack of athletic scholarship dollars deter you from pursuing an Ivy League education as a student-athlete.

Do you have to get a scholarship to compete in college sports?

Typically, there are more spots available on a team than coaches have scholarships to offer. So, not getting a scholarship doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Student-athletes can walk onto a team, which means trying out without receiving a scholarship. Sometimes, athletes are asked to walk on, in which case they are called “preferred walk-ons.” You may also walk on to a team without a scholarship one year and be given a scholarship the next year, depending on your perceived value.

How do you know if you’re eligible for an athletic scholarship?

In order to receive a scholarship to an NCAA D1 or D2 program, student-athletes must meet certain eligibility requirements. They require you to meet a minimum academic standard and be considered an amateur athlete. However, just because you meet the minimum requirements for the school you want to play at doesn’t mean you will receive a scholarship. Your chances for an offer increase the better your academics are.

Note: The NAIA has its own eligibility center and requirements. Read more about the differences between NAIA and NCAA.

What happens if you get a verbal scholarship offer?

A coach may decide to extend a verbal scholarship offer at various points in the recruiting process. However, these offers are non-binding; they are unofficial verbal contracts between a coach and athlete. Nothing is set in stone until the student-athlete signs their national letter of intent.

Your student-athlete can verbally commit to an offer at any point. Keep in mind, though, that committing too early can put your student-athlete at a disadvantage if they change their mind about a program later. If they do receive an offer, they should, first of all, thank the coach. If the student-athlete decides to accept the offer, this is considered a verbal agreement and is also non-binding. It is also acceptable to ask for more time in making the decision. The benefit of giving a verbal commitment is that it simplifies your recruiting process. It sends a message to other coaches that the student-athlete has made a decision so they can stop pursuing them.

Learn more about verbal commitments.

Can an athletic scholarship be taken away?

Losing an athletic scholarship is the unfortunate reality for some college student-athletes. There are a few different situations in which this might occur:

• Most commonly, the student-athlete might never have had the scholarship to begin with. Verbal agreements are non-binding; they do not guarantee you a spot on the roster or a scholarship. Even once you’ve signed your National Letter of Intent, your agreement might not include scholarship aid.
• If you are injured, depending on the school you attend and whether it happened outside of games or practice, your scholarship can be pulled.
• Coaches can decide not to renew your scholarship for the next year. This isn’t a case of the scholarship being “taken away” since they are typically only year-long contracts, but it can still come as a surprise to some student-athletes. Non-renewals can happen for various reasons, including a new coach joining the program, getting into trouble on or off the field, poor performance, etc.
• If you are not eligible to compete for any reason—poor academics, not in good standing with the school, etc.—a coach is not likely to keep you on scholarship.

What other kinds of scholarships can you get?

Because most college student-athletes do not have full-ride scholarships, it’s beneficial to look into earning an academic scholarship as a supplemental form of aid. There are minimum academic standards student-athletes must meet to be considered for an academic scholarship, and these are different for every college and university. Remember, D3 schools only offer non-athletic scholarships, like academic scholarships.

There are also scholarship opportunities available outside of the school itself, including federal scholarships and those from corporations, nonprofit organizations and private providers. Go to scholarships.com to browse through the thousands of options.

By filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), you can also receive federal aid in the form of grants, loans and work-study funds.