We all remember the days when we were little ankle-biters playing a sport for the first time. We remember the first time we kicked a soccer ball, or threw a football, or made our first basket or kill, even our first run around the diamond. For some of us, we are lucky enough to move on to that next level. We realize that the sport isn’t just a sport to us anymore – it’s a love and passion that brings out a competitiveness in us that we never knew existed. Unfortunately, not all of us are that lucky and we are stuck where we started, never reaching that higher level. Little scholarship money is one of the things that prospective athletes struggle with the most and the sad thing is that it hold a lot of quality players back.

Only 2% of high school students earn athletic scholarships, according to NCAA. There are over 7 million high school athletes but only enough college roster spots for 2% of them and only 1% of those selected athletes get full rides to Division I schools. The average athletic scholarship is $10,400. with only 4 sports offering full rides to all athletes who receive scholarships: football, women’s volleyball, and men’s and women’s basketball. There is also the issue of only Division I and Division II Schools offering athletic scholarships – not Division III.

It is possible for athletes to receive some financial help through an academic scholarship. In a Division I school, 53% of athletes receive some levels of athletics aid while in Division II schools, 56% of athletes receive some aid. A major assistance in the college funding world is through academic scholarships. Though Division III schools do not necessarily offer any athletic scholarships, they do offer 75% of athletes some form of academic grant or need-based scholarship averaging at about $13,500. Athletic scholarships can be taken away based on a student’s performance on and off the field while an academic scholarship is much more difficult to take away based upon their academic and social standards.

It’s understood that not all colleges have the same income as others and therefore cannot afford the same facilities, equipment, and scholarships as other fortunate schools. It would be nice however, if more could be done to support college athletes across the board so financial aid would not be as much of a burden after graduating. Students can only do so much inside the classroom and though they should strive for the best grades they can achieve so they can get academic scholarships in addition to athletic scholarships, sometimes it isn’t enough. An athlete shouldn’t have to suffer their dream because they can’t afford it and that is where there is still a problem in college athletics.