Cheerleader in red and white uniform backed by clouds, held up by teammates

Why You Shouldn't Expect a Full Ride for College Sports

Most college athletes don't receive huge athletic scholarships because full rides are the exception, not the rule. Here's why you shouldn't rely on them.

The reality is that most college athletes do not have athletic scholarships. College athletic scholarships are the exception rather than the rule. Most people have it the other way around, and it's not hard to understand why. After all, how often do we watch some televised college sports event where the commentators talk about how some player started off playing for the team without any scholarship but earned one because of his outstanding performance on the playing field? It makes it sound like everyone else has a scholarship, right? Nope. This may be true in the money sports we see on TV, but the reality is that approximately only 2% of high school athletes receive scholarships to play in college. Making the college team is not the same thing as receiving a scholarship for three simple reasons.

D-III schools don’t offer athletic scholarships

The largest division in the NCAA, Division III, does not offer athletic scholarships. Over a third of all student-athletes play at the D-III level, which is a major reason why only 2% of all high school athletes go off to college without any athletic scholarships. This doesn't mean that D-III athletes don't have any scholarships; they just don't have athletic ones. So if you’re anticipating playing D-III—or even D-II—make sure to do your research and find scholarships for other talents, skills, and experiences to supplement what you won’t get for athletics to help pay for your college costs.

Related: The College Sports Glossary of Terms

Most sports are equivalency sports

There are two types of sports in the NCAA: equivalency sports and head count sports. Head count sports offer full scholarships to players, while equivalency sports are allowed to divide one scholarship among multiple players. For example, one player may receive a 50% scholarship while two others get 25% each. There are only six head count sports in the NCAA: football, men's and women's basketball, women's tennis, women's gymnastics, and women's volleyball. All other sports are equivalency sports. Given that in most sports, teams carry rosters two to three times the number of allowed scholarships, it is very unlikely to get a full-ride scholarship in an equivalency sport.

Scholarships are not fully funded

The NCAA and NAIA set maximum limits on the number of scholarships colleges can offer, but they also don’t require the schools to fully fund them. This isn't something frequently talked about but something prospects will encounter as they start talking to coaches. For instance, can you see the problem of requiring college baseball coaches to provide a minimum of a 25% scholarship while they may only have three of their allowed 11.7 scholarships funded? And we're talking at D-I schools here. So bear in mind, coaches are in as tight a spot as you when it comes to funds and how they can properly disperse them to college athletes.

Related: Ultimate Scholarship Guide: Searching for Scholarships

There's nothing wrong with pursuing sports in college—but a lot of student-athletes are uninformed as to how it works, and that makes it harder to be realistic. For many students, collegiate athletics offers structure, challenge, and socialization while doing something they love. They don't want to quit playing, and that’s great. But players should be realistic about the chances of their sport actually paying their tuition bill.

For more advice to help you on your student-athlete journey, check out the blogs and articles in our College Athletics section.

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

About Michelle Kretzschmar

Michelle Kretzschmar blogs at DIY College Rankings on how to find a college with a focus on using data to make the best choices possible. After helping her son through the college search and baseball recruiting process, she created the DIY College Rankings Spreadsheet, which contains information on over 1,500 colleges that families can use to identify schools best for them. She offers an online class on using the spreadsheet, and the Introductory Lesson is free.

Michelle is also very interested in college graduation rates and has created a free list of 50-50 colleges that accept at least 50% of their applicants and have at least a 50% graduation rate. There aren't as many schools with at least a 50% graduation rate as you would think—but probably more that accept at least 50% of students than you would expect.

Michelle received her Bachelor of Arts in Plan II and History and Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin with research focusing on high school dropouts.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information.
Swipe left if you're not interested.

Ohio University

Athens, OH


Melanie Kajy

Melanie Kajy

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me tremendously during my senior year of high school. I started off using the college search to find more information about the universities I was interested in. Just this tool alone gave me so much information about a particular school. It was my one-stop shop to learn about college. I was able to find information about college tuition, school rank, majors, and so much more that I can't list it all. The college search tool has helped me narrow down which college I want to attend, and it made a stressful process surprisingly not so stressful. I then moved to the scholarship search tool to find scholarships to apply for because I can't afford to pay for tuition myself. The search tool helped me find scholarships that I was eligible for. The tool gave me all the information I could ever need about a particular scholarship that was being offered. The CollegeXpress scholarship search tool is so much better than other tools offered, like the Chegg scholarship search. Thanks to CollegeXpress, I was able to apply to tons of scholarships in a relatively easy way!

Brooke Maggio

Brooke Maggio

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me tremendously in my college search in narrowing down the schools I’m interested in. Using the college search tool, I was able to narrow down my choices to schools that matched what I was looking for. I also used CollegeXpress for their scholarship search, which helped me find scholarships that I meet the requirements of.

Joan Franklin

Joan Franklin

Counselor

I love this website and have been using it for years with my students. I originally bought products through Wintergreen Orchard House and appreciated having key facts at my fingertips when advising students. Your site is easy to access and offers a wide array of topics I need as a busy college counselor.

Casey Kammeyer

Casey Kammeyer

$500 Refer-A-Friend Scholarship Winner

I love the site CollegeXpress; it has been very helpful finding colleges and getting them to send me information. It has also been very, very helpful with finding tons of scholarships. Also, I told many of my friends about it and they love it as well!

Chris Bell

Chris Bell

Bell College Consulting

The college lists on CollegeXpress are indispensable for sussing out creative additions to a student’s list, and the college-specific pages provide terrific commentary and suggestions for related schools. CollegeXpress is among the most trusted sources I use for information for my students.