Despite the numerous sports-related scholarships, the number of students receiving them is relatively low. On the one hand, many applicants compete for these scholarships; on the other hand, some students receive multiple scholarships. Many parents hope that high school teams will lead to financial help at the college level. According to Debt.org,
The NCAA has some sobering news for those parents: just over 1% of high school athletes (1.3%, according to statistics from the NCAA) receive full or partial athletic scholarships. And just as important, those scholarships are not guaranteed for four years.
While many high school students and their parents dream about the full ride scholarship, the majority of athletic scholarships are partial, and some are quite small, leaving the student and parents with big payments to make.
The perception that there is a lot of money for athletes leads to huge investments made by parents. Starting at ever-younger ages, parents spend money on uniforms, fees, equipment, and training for their children. Such investments make sense if a student is passionate about the sport. But on a financial basis, that money adds up over the years. If they had saved and invested the same amounts, they would have substantial funds for the child’s college or university years. Instead, they’ve bought a tiny chance at an athletic scholarship.
Even a gifted athlete, who seems to be likely to receive a scholarship, can see this chance disappear in one serious injury. The scouts who intently watch a certain high school player will quietly vanish when that student receives a serious joint injury. When the scouts evaporate, the chance at scholarship money goes with them.
In 2019, journalist Megan Cerullo wrote:
A recent study by TD Ameritrade found that a fifth of parents with kids in sports are either sure their child will win a college athletic scholarship or are counting on it — another 30% are “highly hopeful” or “fairly sure” of hitting the academic jackpot. At the same time, many parents say they spend $500 or more per month on youth sports, requiring them to cut back on family vacations and other expenses. Others work overtime, wrack up credit card debt, raid kids’ college funds and dip into their own retirement accounts to pay for child athletics.
By 2025, the situation has intensified. While high-profile D1 schools still have strong athletic scholarship programs for football and basketball, the total number of scholarships has declined, and a larger percentage of those are partial. A $1000 or $2000 annual benefit, over four years of college, is a poor repayment for six or eight years of all-out dedication to an athletic program.
Parents wildly overestimate the likelihood of their children winning a scholarship, and are making major financial sacrifices to buy a microscopic chance. The odds are similar to a lottery ticket.
The same amount of money — parents often start before sixth grade preparing their children to be elite athletes — saved and invested would be a significant contribution to the four-year cost of tuition and living expenses. The same amount of time and energy put into academics would better prepare students for academic work at the post-secondary level, and increase the chances of students winning an academic scholarship.
If the best-case scenario happens, and a high school student receives a “full ride” to a prestigious post-secondary institution, what happens when that college career starts? While some athletes arrive on campus prepared for academic work, others will arrive having spent huge amounts of time in the gym and on the practice field, but not much time with the books.
Although athletic scholarships serve the purpose of helping teams recruit top-level talent, there is a bit of cognitive dissonance in the concept of ‘athletic scholarship’ — an odd mismatch: How does a student’s history of being an excellent hockey player in high school shape her or his mastery of calculus at the university? How do countless hours of practice on a soccer team qualify a student for the study of electrical engineering?
To be sure, athletic programs can foster self-discipline, teamwork, and leadership. Those skills are as likely to grow in the team’s weakest player as in the superstar. Scholarships given on the basis of athletic performance will therefore not correlate to character and personal growth, and while self-discipline, teamwork, and leadership are valuable traits, they are not directly correlated to academic work.
Parents make a gigantic financial investment, hoping for an athletic scholarship, but the student makes a gigantic investment of time. Instead of honing skills in calculus, physics, and German grammar, the student has honed the skills of catching, throwing, and running.
Athletic scholarships began in the late 1800s, and blossomed in the post-WW2 years of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The purpose of the scholarships was clear: to help colleges and universities attract better players so that the team would win more games.
As tuition prices increased dramatically starting in the 1990s, parents began to see athletic scholarships as a route to financing their children’s education.
Instead of motivating excellent players to choose one university over another, the scholarships motivated parents and students to try to become excellent players. Some high school students and their parents poured huge amounts of time, money, and energy into pursuing college athletic scholarships.
The scholarship hunt is a long shot. There are so many good athletes chasing so few spots that even the most skilled and talented are not guaranteed a full ride, and that sudden major injury can end the hunt in an instant.
Parents should not rely on athletic scholarships as part of an educational funding program. It’s great to get a scholarship, but it’s not a plan.
High school sports have proven themselves to be valuable experiences for young people. Society should encourage secondary school athletics. But the value of playing and the value of being part of a team does not lie in college tuition. It lies in physical fitness and comradery.
