The ultimate goal for some athletes is to receive a full athletic scholarship to play their sport at their dream college. While this goal may be tough to reach, it is certainly achievable through extensive hard work and dedication. Even if an athlete isn't able to obtain a full athletic scholarship, they may be able to achieve a partial scholarship depending on what sport they play. Sometimes, however, an athletic scholarship may not even be possible. Because there is so much variance in the college sphere surrounding athletic scholarships, they can be difficult for prospective college athletes to wrap their heads around.

Here are seven facts about college athletic scholarships:

1. Athletic scholarships can be full or partial

Just because you receive an athletic scholarship does not mean it is automatically a full ride. How much a scholarship covers depends on an athlete's sport as well as how a sport decides to divide its allotted scholarship money amongst its players. This can result in the athlete being responsible for paying the remaining costs of attendance or attempting to find academic scholarships to cover these leftover costs.

2. Only NCAA Division I and Division II schools can offer athletic scholarships

At the NCAA level, only Division I and Division II schools can give its athletes athletic scholarships. At the Division III level, athletes can only receive academic scholarships and financial aid. Most scholarships at the Division II level are going to be partial scholarships, but full scholarships are still possible in some cases. At the Division I level, whether a scholarship is full or partial typically depends on the sport.

3. NAIA and NJCAA schools can also offer athletic scholarships

Even if an athlete is not competing at a school in the NCAA, they can still earn an athletic scholarship. Schools that are members of the NAIA or NJCAA (junior and community colleges) offer scholarships as well. At the NAIA level, up to $450 million in athletic scholarships are awarded to over 77,000 athletes. The NJCAA, meanwhile, has three tiers, which are comparable to NCAA divisions. Only the top tier can receive athletic scholarships, while the second tier can receive financial aid to cover tuition and room. 

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4. There are two kinds of athletic scholarships

The first kind of athletic scholarship given to athletes are “head count” scholarships. These are given to athletes who play bigger sports for a school, such as football, men's and women's basketball, tennis, gymnastics, and volleyball. Head count scholarships are full athletic scholarships, but schools limit the number of these scholarships that can be given out on each team. The other kind of athletic scholarship is an “equivalency” scholarship. These scholarships are given out to athletes who play sports that are not head count sports. The sports have a certain number of full athletic scholarships to give out, but they can be split up amongst the athletes at the coach's discretion. This means that smaller sports will likely have multiple athletes with partial scholarships, but may not have any athletes with a full scholarship. 

5. The value of the average athletic scholarship varies greatly by level

As one might expect, the average value of an athletic scholarship varies by level, and there is quite a difference between them. For NCAA Division I athletes, the average athletic scholarship amount is $18,013 for men and $18,722 for women. At the Division II level, these numbers drop to $6,588 for men and $8,054 for women. For NAIA athletes, the average scholarship value is $8,093 for men and $7,870 for women. Finally, in the NJCAA, men average $2,376 while women average $3,259 in athletic scholarship money.

6. Athletic scholarships are negotiable

While this may seem surprising, athletic scholarships can be negotiated by prospective college  athletes. Coaches may be willing to offer more scholarship money if an athlete has improved significantly since first offering the scholarship or if they want to prevent an athlete from signing with another school. Sometimes, more money can even become available for a program which can lead to an increase in athletic scholarship value if an athlete attempts to negotiate theirs. 

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7. You do not need an athletic scholarship to participate in college athletics

Some of the greatest college athletes to ever live were walk-ons. Athletes such as J.J. Watt, Ozzie Smith and Scottie Pippen were walk-ons and wound up being some of the best to ever play their respective sports. Just because an athlete doesn't receive an athletic scholarship does not mean that they cannot be a part of their sport at their school.

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* Originally published on June 21, 2023, by Owen Roche