Full Ride Scholarship Offers
Full-ride athletic scholarships are only available in six college sports:
- Football
- Men’s Basketball
- Women’s Basketball
- Women’s Gymnastics
- Tennis
- Volleyball
These are known as head count sports that create revenue for the school. A full ride covers the major costs of attending college like tuition, room and board, books, and some course fees. The term “full ride” doesn’t mean for the “full four years.” Full ride scholarships, like all offers, are one-year agreements that may or may not be renewed.
Partial Scholarship Offers
The remaining sports or “equivalency sports” in NCAA Division I and II are where coach essentially have a pool of scholarship money that they can divide up amongst their team. While not a full ride, a partial scholarship offer can still cover a significant portion of college costs or very little. It may be that one student-athlete on a team gets a scholarship that covers tuition, while a teammate may only get offered a scholarship that covers the costs of books.
As a response to COVID-19, NCAA D1 Council adopted legislation that loosened regulation regarding need-based aid and academic scholarships that are not tied to athletic ability. Starting August 1, 2020, teams in equivalency sports will not have any athletes’ need- and academic-based aid count against the maximum athletic scholarship limit. Prior to this update, athletes had to meet certain criteria for their additional aid to not be counted against a team’s athletic scholarship limit.
Teams will still have a maximum athletic scholarship cap, but student-athletes can seek to stack as much need-based aid and academic scholarships on top of their athletic scholarship as they qualify for. 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 that need it—especially at pricier private colleges.
Walk On Offers
Not all offers come with a monetary reward. Sometimes, the reward is simply a spot on the roster. Walk-ons are far more common in college sports than most families and student-athletes realize. It’s important to understand the distinctions between the different types of walk-ons as you navigate the recruiting process.
Preferred Walk Ons
A preferred walk-on offer promises you a roster spot, but you won’t receive any athletic aid.
Being a preferred walk-on is the highest status a recruit can get outside of receiving an athletic scholarship. No athletic aid is offered, but preferred walk-ons will go into college with a roster spot secured, receive a uniform and have a strong chance of competing for playing time their first year.
Can preferred walk-ons earn a scholarship? Yes, scholarships can be earned going into a second season, but nothing is guaranteed. They are, however, typically first in line when scholarship dollars free up. Some student-athletes will turn down scholarship offers at smaller schools to play for a bigger program as a preferred walk-on. But keep in mind, even preferred walk-ons can get cut during try-outs or team camp if they aren’t meeting coach expectations.