How Much is the Average Scholarship?

The average athletic scholarship as of 2008 was $10,409.  A large number of the football scholarships are full-ride scholarships so if those are eliminated, the average athletic scholarship is $8,707.

In sports like track and field and baseball, the scholarship is actually more like $2,000.  This is because of the numbers of athletes, the full scholarships are actually divided amongst several of the athletes.  In sports like soccer, there may be 10 full scholarships available but most NCAA teams only have 2 players that have full scholarships and the rest split up the other 8 scholarships amongst 12 - 15 other players.

One important statistic was the number of athletes that got some kind of financial aid through athletics.  Slightly less than 140,000 student-athletes receive aid due to athletics.

Ice Hockey

For those athletes that can skate and put a puck in a goal, hockey was the best paying NCAA sport for athletic scholarships.  Typically players in men's ice hockey receive almost $22,000 in scholarship monies.  That number is only slightly ahead of womens ice hockey which was $20,540.

At the other end of spectrum was men's riflery which boasted and average scholarship amount of $3,608.  In womens sports, $4,899 on average was given for bowling scholarships.

Year-to-Year Renewal

There is no such thing as a four-year scholarship. All N.C.A.A. athletic scholarships must be renewed and are not guaranteed year to year, something stated in bold letters on the organization’s Web site for student-athletes. Nearly every scholarship can be canceled for almost any reason in any year, although it is unclear how often that happens.  Barring a morals issue or problems with the team or school, most scholarships are automatically renewed.  The main reason is the bad press and recruiting repricussions that could happen if a program got a bad rap for pulling scholarships.