<p>Sorry if this is a stupid question but, can you get a scholarship from a school for a sport you did and not be a recruited athlete?</p>
<p>??</p>
<p>What exactly are you asking? What sport do you want to play in college? Are you male or female?</p>
<p>Are you asking if you can get an athletic scholarship for playing in high school, but not in college? No.</p>
<p>Athletic scholarships are regulated by the NCAA. Schools decide how they will apportion them among sports and athletes, and those awards are very carefully offered by the coaches for the athletes they most want. It is highly unlikely that a walk on athlete can get any of that money, because it’s usually all gone by then. </p>
<p>That said, there are always exceptions. If you show up for a sport and make the coaches’ eyes bulge out as to how fantastic you are, maybe, maybe, maybe some money could be found. Maybe some athlete quits. Maybe some extra funds are lying around. So yes, it’s possible., but that’s not what usually happens. Even most recruited athletes do not get money. The coach will give you a word or points towards admissions, so you have a higher likelihood of getting accepted, but money is a whole other story.</p>
<p>My son was a national athlete, and would have been an immediate impact team member at any of his school choices, but getting money was not so easy. Each award in his sport is cut into smaller pieces and very parsiminously doled out except for the very top of the top. Some of the schools did not even give money for his sport. They don’t have to, you know. </p>
<p>NCAA or NAIA? If you’re going to play in college, an NAIA school may be able to offer you money even if you sought out the coach rather than the other way around. NAIA is far less restrictive than NCAA, but its also composed of smaller, less well-known schools.</p>
<p>You also have to know the ncaa rules about other aid you receive. Just today I sent an email to my daughter’s coach-to-be asking for an explanation on an outside scholarship she might not be able to take because, since it is sports focused, the college coach may have to consider it ‘athletic’ money and I think the coach is already at her maximum.</p>
<p>The student athlete can only accept certain types of money and the schools can get to the place they need to be in different ways. My daughter can accept athletic money and any other type of aid (grants/merit/scholarships) open to any other student, so she gets athletic money and merit money and 2 grants, but she can’t take financial aid from the school based on need. I think she could still take a Pell grant if she qualified, and certainly can take loans, but no school-only financial aid or that amount would need to be counted toward the coach’s max scholarship amount.</p>
<p>The ‘head count’ sports (football/basketball) have a second test for walk ons, and they can only have so many first time students on scholarship in a year (I think it is 25 out of 85 for football). Walk ons can’t have had official visits or certain contacts with the coach to prevent schools from giving full academic scholarship to player and thus getting around the head count rules.</p>
<p>It’s complicated. If you are planning on being a walk on, make sure you know the rules before officially visiting or contacting a coach.</p>