Things a Full-ride Athletic Scholarship Covers 2024

One of the major reasons for any family to accept their kids to participate in college athletics is because of the scholarship because it helps offset the financial burden on families. Unfortunately, the chances of receiving these scholarships are very low, but NOT IMPOSSIBLE.

In fact, out of almost 8 million high school student-athletes that graduate, only 150,000 of them are awarded scholarships, so you see it’s a tiny fraction. We would recommend you learn some other important athletic scholarship facts to be properly guided.

The chances even reduce further when you’re pursuing a Full-ride scholarship, which is a dream for many students and is exclusively meant for student-athletes in NCAA D1 headcount sports. Since it’s a dream for several students, it also means you should expect massive competition, which even female athletic scholarships also face.

The reason several students love this award is not just about the tuition it takes care of but many other things a full-ride athletic scholarship covers, and we’ll list them in this blog.

Table of Contents

How Much is a Full-ride Athletic Scholarship Worth?

The worth of a Full-ride Athletic Scholarship is within the range of $20,000 and $50,000 per student according to Sallie Mae. Also, some colleges like Southern Methodist University, University of Miami, Rice University, Vanderbilt University, The University of Tulsa offer full-ride scholarships worth over $40,000.

These scholarships are mostly awarded by college head coaches

What Percent of College Athletes Get Full-ride Scholarships?

Sadly, as a student-athlete aspiring to continue athletic prowess in college, the odds of getting a full-ride scholarship are against you, because only an extremely tiny fraction gets this scholarship. Just 0.2% of college student-athletes receive a Full-ride scholarship.

That means you need to be more than lucky to win this Scholarship, you must have done your research properly with your parents, even going as far as getting professional assistance which will help you increase your chances.

Note that almost all students in NCAA D1 Head Count Sport receive scholarships, and there are only 6 of these sports, so if you desperately need this scholarship, then your focus should move from the percentage of those that receive full-ride to how to join this D1 head count sport. We’ll list the requirements after listing the things a full-ride athletic scholarship covers.

What Does a Full-ride Athletic Scholarship Cover?

The best part of things a full-ride athletic scholarship covers is that it goes beyond your tuition fee, and covers other expenses including books, fees, tuition, room and board, dining, maybe living cost, and some stipend. Let’s not mistake a full-ride scholarship with a full-tuition scholarship, the latter only covers the tuition cost of attending a college.

Also, don’t assume that once you or your kid receives an athletic scholarship, it runs for the entire 4 years of college. Athletic scholarships by Sport need to be renewed annually, as long as you maintain the school’s and NCAA requirements.

Requirements to Join NCAA D1 Head Count Sport

Note, because you have a very nice academic result doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll meet the academic eligibility set by the NCAA. The good news is that over 95% of recruits will not have a problem meeting the NCAA requirements.

Here are some requirements you should take note of;

D1 Academic Requirements

Must have graduated from high school
Have a minimum GPA of 2.3
Must have completed 16 core courses
10 of these core courses must have been completed by the end of your junior year
Have earned an SAT combined score or ACT sum score matching your core-course GPA

Even though a minimum GPA of 2.3 is required, having a higher GPA will give you an upper advantage over other student-athletes competing for the same scholarship.

D1 Amateurism Requirements

Not receiving compensation that exceeds the amount that is appropriate and necessary expenses.
The student-athlete will not be paid for appearance fees due to their athletic ability, or fame. Even having a YouTube account that receives paid advertisements is not allowed.

Full-ride Vs Equivalency Scholarship

As we said earlier, full-ride scholarships are covers everything that has to do with your tuition books, room, and board, dining, and maybe living costs too. But it is only awarded to D1 Head Count Sports which are; Men’s Football (FBS only), Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Gymnastics, and Women’s Volleyball.

Whereas equivalency scholarships are partial scholarships that are split in such a way that the more important players will receive a higher percentage of the scholarships. That means some students will receive up to full tuition and those that will just receive books.

Unlike full-ride scholarships, both athletes and walk-ons receive scholarships. So if there were 20 average team sizes and 15 scholarships, rather than awarding the scholarship to only the 15 athletes they will share it with both their athletes and walk-ons but the price will now vary.

Conclusion

You have seen the things a full-ride athletic scholarship covers, and how beneficial it will be to reducing or even completely waiving your educational expenses.