Real World Chances of Getting College Athletic Scholarships

Athletic scholarships are often discussed in terms of elite athletes. And while the big name universities work overtime to stack their teams with the country’s best stars, the fact is that there are hundreds, even thousands, of other athletic scholarships given for good athletes. They are not just reserved for the most elite.

Three major collegiate sports associations sanction scholarship sports: National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).

There are scholarships for the more traditional sports like football, baseball, basketball and volleyball. There are scholarships for wrestling, track and field, swimming and ice hockey as well. There are scholarships for sports not as commonly played in high school such as golf, lacrosse and fencing.

What are the main differences between the athletic associations?

The NCAA member schools include many of the largest institutions in the country, many of them unabashedly athletics-driven. The NCAA sponsors 22 sports and 3 divisions. Scholarships are supported.

  • NAIA schools—approximately 300 of them—tend to be those committed to providing excellent athletes with equally excellent academics and overall college experience. The NAIA’s motto is “Champions of Character.” The NAIA sponsors 13 sports. Scholarships are supported.
  • The NJCAA is sponsor for the few hundred competitive community colleges and junior colleges, many of which have extremely competitive teams that feature excellent athletes in their sport. The NJCAA sponsors 16 collegiate sports, and supports schools in 3 athletic divisions. Scholarships are supported.
  • The NCAA sanctions athletic scholarships in the Division I and Division II schools, but not for Division III. This is a similar model adopted by both the NAIA and the NJCAA. And most sports across the various divisions are limited in the scholarships each team may extend for each sport.

You’ll discover that many of the sports supported at the collegiate level are common to high school: football, baseball, basketball, and soccer. Others are less common: lacrosse, rifle, fencing, and golf. Some colleges and universities even offer rodeo as a scholarship sport.

About Athletic Scholarship Limits

Regardless of the collegiate association, no school can simply offer as many scholarships as it would like. The NCAA, NAIA and the NJCAA all set maximum scholarship limits per team, per sport. These limits indicate maximum number of full scholarships, but in many cases coaches have the option to divide those into many more partial scholarships. And in other cases you may find schools so stretched for funds that they are unable to offer near their set scholarship max.

Exceptions to the rule include those sports the NCAA considers headcount sports. Men’s headcount sports include 1-A NCAA football and basketball. Women’s headcount sports include D-I NCAA tennis, volleyball, basketball, and gymnastics. Scholarships for headcount sports may not be subdivided – they must be awarded as full scholarships.

Getting a College Athletic Scholarship

The idea that coaches and recruiters will seek you out if you’re any good in a high school sport is baloney. In fact this mindset tanks many students’ chances for even getting a tiny bit of athletic scholarship money. If you’ve read any of the above it should be clear that there are many more opportunities for snagging even a partial athletic scholarship than you may have previously imagined.

The best strategy to follow: If you feel you are good enough to pursue a college sports scholarship have a candid conversation with your high school coach, guidance and career counselor, and even a professional athletic recruiter. Find out what schools and teams you should be targeting. Research the schools and teams for which you’d like to play and reach out the coaches. You will have to work very hard in most cases to get the attention you need to get recruited.

Try-outs and Walk-Ons

Try outs for athletic scholarships are a real possibility and a given in a sport like Cheerleading. No, cheerleading is not sanctioned by any of the 3 collegiate associations, but it is considered an athletic sport at many colleges and universities, coeducational in many cases, and when possible competitive teams offer scholarships and expect top notch athleticism, evidenced in their rigorous try-outs or auditions.

Walk-on scholarship opportunities are available at many colleges. Don’t expect these chances to crop up at the big NCAA D-I and even some of the D-II schools, but many coaches do promote this strategy and use it to great advantage in fleshing out talent for their teams.

One alternative athletic scholarship is in cheerleading. No, men's and women's cheerleading is not an NCAA sport. But it is a very competitive team "sport." Top cheer squads recruit new team members by offering competitive auditions and try-outs. What's more...many teams even offer scholarship money.

Division III Scholarships: Money for Athletes

D-III schools are restricted from offering athletic-based scholarship money to college athletes. However, if you think that this indicates a lack of competition, you’d be sorely mistaken. Believe it or not many excellent, even elite, athletes opt to attend D-III schools. Not every student wishes to sign away their lives to a 4-year sports scholarship. And D-III schools do actively seek out and make contact with good athletes.

Despite the fact that you can’t win a straight up athletic scholarship does not mean you are excluded from other types of aid. Smaller D-III colleges use need-based and academic-based scholarships to help attract students of all kinds, including very good athletes.

Women’s Athletic Scholarships and Emerging Sports Scholarships

In 1972 Title XI, sweeping educational reforms aimed at gender equity, effectively changed women’s sports forever. Today colleges and universities MUST provide equal athletic opportunity to both men and women. Most collegiate sports are coeducational—there are men’s and women’s teams. A few sports, however, remain distinctively women’s—softball, field hockey, and for the most part volleyball. And a few remain male-dominated: wrestling, football, and baseball. There are a few NCAA men’s volleyball teams, but the sport remains women-focused.

Emerging sports are those usually much less widely known but with the potential to engage many more women in college sports--helping to even out gender equity issues. The list of emerging sports changes as some are converted to “championship” play (ice hockey, bowling, and rowing) and others are abandoned. The current list of emerging women’s sports includes rugby, sand volleyball, and squash, among a few others. In some cases you may find modest scholarships for these at schools with very active clubs and heady competition.

Collegiate Club Sports – Any Scholarships?

“If it’s a sport, there is a scholarship for it.”

This statement may be pushing it a bit, but there will certainly be a college club dedicated to almost any type of sport you might imagine. In fact, you may even be able to find a club that tries to recreate the fictional Harry Potter sport of Quidditch. Other common college club sports include archery, sailing, martial arts, mixed martial arts, equestrian, Frisbee, badminton, table tennis, and even billiards. The list is only limited by your own imagination.

In a few cases clubs large and active enough may sponsor small scholarships or offer “tuition” awards for travel to competitions or for membership. But, most are without scholarship money. You participate for the fondness of the activity and the competition.