As the final whistle blows and there is a dogpile at midfield, the deciding factor of the championship was likely decided in high school classrooms three years ago.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the organization that governs over 1,100 colleges and universities, has the ability to set scholarship limits for all schools in the Division I, Division II and Division III levels.

In 1972, it became federal law that men’s and women’s athletics are funded equally. Despite this enactment, funding for football and men’s basketball scholarships have not decreased, which has reduced the amount of athletic scholarship money for other men’s sports. In addition, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 3 schools, which make up 37.4% of NCAA student-athletes, do not offer athletic scholarships. This has caused academic scholarships to be vital to the recruiting process in more than 85% of college sports. 

Coach Justin Reitz, teacher and Head Varsity Baseball Coach at Green Hope served as graduate assistant for McDaniel College and assistant coach and recruiter for Johns Hopkins University. In an interview with the GH Falcon, Coach Reitz discussed the recruiting and scholarship landscape at the D3 level.

“At the [Division 3] level, scholarships are academic only, they do not have any athletic scholarships for [Division 3] athletes, it is all based on academics and grants,” he said.

Coach Reitz also discussed the practice of “stacking” scholarships at the D1 and D2 levels, where a coach will combine the athletic scholarships they are allotted with academic money from the admissions department. “They may not give you a full athletic ride but if you’re a good student they could give you 15,000 dollars [in] academic scholarship[s] and cover the rest with athletic scholarship[s].” This also benefits coaches because it saves their limited athletic scholarship money for other players who don’t get academic money. 

Jake Lewis, the 9th ranked 2024 mens golfer in North Carolina per ShotStat and a member of the Green Hope men’s golf team committed to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) on July 21, 2023. he discussed his recruiting journey to being a D1 athlete. When asked about his athletic scholarship Lewis (‘24) said, “There wasn’t a negotiation [on the amount], but the scholarship can go up if I perform well.” He continued by saying “[Any] academic scholarship I receive, I can stack with the athletic money.” 

For D1, both men’s golf (4.5 scholarships for 10 spots) and baseball (11.7 scholarships for 35 roster spots) force coaches to make tough decisions with their athletic money. On the topic of splitting up scholarships for baseball, Coach Reitz said, “At  [the] D1 and D2 level, [coaches] will give mostly partials unless you are [an elite player]. Those guys are more likely to get closer to a full ride.” Lewis (‘24), speaking about his recruiting class at UNCG, “Most people got similar amounts, [there are] no full rides because there isn’t enough money to give full rides in golf.”

As college sports are getting into full swing, team rosters are filled with student-athletes that are receiving academic scholarships.