Young athletes attend endless summer sports camps, and their parents hope that athletic talent will lead to a college education. But the reality is that most sports scholarships cover much less than the full cost of college.
This is just the kind of reality check that parents and kids need so they don't depend on a windfall that will never arrive.
The New York Times reported its story based on newly released NCAA data:
Excluding the glamour sports of football and basketball, the
average NCAA athletic scholarship is nowhere near a full ride,
amounting to $8,707. In sports like baseball or track and field, the
number is routinely as low as $2,000. Even when football and basketball
are included, the average is $10,409. Tuition and room and board for NCAA institutions often cost between $20,000 and $50,000 a year.
"People
run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could
always reach the next level," said Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose
daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. "They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they're very
lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000
college bill. What’s that? $6,000?"
Within the NCAA data,
last collected in 2003-4 and based on NCAA calculations from an
internal study, are other statistical insights about the distribution
of money for the 138,216 athletes who received athletic aid in Division
I and Division II.
- Men received 57 percent of all scholarship
money, but in 11 of the 14 sports with men's and women's teams, the
women's teams averaged higher amounts per athlete.
- On average,
the best-paying sport was neither football nor men's or women's
basketball. It was men's ice hockey, at $21,755. Next was women's ice
hockey ($20,540).
- The lowest overall average scholarship total
was in men's riflery ($3,608), and the lowest for women was in bowling
($4,899). Baseball was the second-lowest men's sport ($5,806).
Many students and their parents think of playing a sport not because of
scholarship money, but because it is stimulating and might even give
them a leg up in the increasingly competitive process of applying to
college. But coaches and administrators, the gatekeepers of the
recruiting system, said in interviews that parents and athletes who
hoped for such money were much too optimistic and that they were
unprepared to effectively navigate the system. The athletes, they
added, were the ones who ultimately suffered.
The story goes on to describe how difficult it is for athletes to keep their scholarships once they arrive at school and how classmates often resent athletes who receive scholarships.
This is true, but there are a handfull of schools...
