College Soccer Scholarships at NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA Schools

Collegiate soccer is huge. Hundreds of colleges in the U.S. offer competitive soccer. Even those not associated with one of the athletic associations may offer club teams. Considering that nearly every American high school has a soccer team it’s not difficult to imagine how massive are the number of students who want just one stab at a college soccer scholarship.

The NCAA, the NAIA, and the NJCAA all offer championship soccer and scholarships. In the NCAA, men’s soccer teams number well over 750 across all 3 divisions and women’s teams over 950.

  • How many men’s scholarship soccer teams are there in the NCAA? Eliminate the close to 400 D-III men’s teams and you’re left with 370+ scholarship soccer teams in the D-I and D-II divisions.
  • How many women’s scholarship soccer teams are there in the NCAA? Take away the 419 D-III schools—which are non-scholarship—and you’re left to explore your options at 532 scholarship schools.

The NCAA imposes limits on the number of full scholarships any D-I and D-II school may offer, for men and women. This doesn’t mean each school necessarily has all these funds to extend, mind you. NCAA Soccer scholarship limits are as follow:

  • NCAA D-I men’s soccer teams may offer 9.9 scholarships each
  • D-II men’s soccer teams are limited to 9 each
  • Women’s D-I soccer teams may offer 12 scholarships each and
  • Women’s D-II teams, 9.9 each.

Yes, the NCAA provides potentially hundreds of soccer scholarships, but the nation is full of excellent soccer players, making even these hundreds very competitive.

NAIA and NJCAA Soccer Scholarships

For soccer players eager to snag a bit of the scholarship pie the NAIA and the NJCAA both provide another few hundred scholarship schools where both men and women may take to the field.

  • The NJCAA is limited to 18 soccer scholarships per team;
  • The NAIA is limited to 12 per team.

Both of these athletic associations may offer scholarships from full-rides to partials depending upon association rules, the discretion of the coaches, positions needing to be filled and the current team roster.

Because soccer scholarships are so competitive your best strategy is to pursue a scholarship opportunity midway into your high school career. Don’t rely on coaches to sell your skills or sign your praises to coaches and don’t rely on coaches from faraway schools to necessarily know who you are. In this day and age much of the scholarship responsibility rests on the student athlete. Get lazy and you’ll miss out regardless of how skilled a player you may be.