For many athletes looking to pursue a career at the collegiate level, scholarship money is imperative to their success. It is very hard to find time in the schedule of a college athlete to make money to afford the high tuition costs of attending college. The sad truth is that certain sports are easier than others to get a scholarship in. Here are some of the sports with the best and worst chances of being awarded a scholarship.
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Easy: Lacrosse
For men, the easiest sport to receive a scholarship in is lacrosse. There are 431 programs across the country, with 17 of those being DI programs, with 12.6% of lacrosse players being on scholarships. In Division I, there is an average of 12.6 scholarships per team and the only teams that do not offer any scholarships are NAIA programs.
Easy: Ice Hockey
For women, the easiest sport to receive a scholarship in is ice hockey. There is over an 18% chance of receiving a scholarship in this sport. This comes from the 36 DI programs that each offer 18 scholarships. The only problem is any level below DI does not really provide any financial support for athletes based on their skills.
Hard: Wrestling
For men, the hardest sport to receive a scholarship in is wrestling. Only around 2.7% of college wrestlers receive a scholarship. The one upside is that only the DIII level does not offer any scholarships at al. The other levels just do not offer as many scholarships per athlete on their team with DI programs offering around 9.9 scholarships.
Hard: Volleyball
For women, the hardest sport to receive a scholarship in is volleyball–just 3.9% of college volleyball players receive a scholarship to play in college. With over 1,800 programs, volleyball is one of the most popular sports to play, but there are only 12 scholarship spots available for each of the 332 DI programs. Since volleyball is one of the bigger women's sports in college I hope to see more scholarships provided in the future to help financially support women in collegiate athletics.
Money shouldn't be the most important thing in choosing what sport you play and where you go to school, but for many making sure that they will receive financial support in attending college is necessary. If you want to play your sport at the collegiate level and do not receive any scholarships, it is important to look into third-party companies that offer scholarships to athletes.
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* Originally published on August 5, 2022, by Royce Linder
