What Coaches Don’t Want You Know About Athletic Scholarships

The game of baseball will throw curveballs at you off the field as well as on it. I made a crucial error upon enrolling to North Carolina State University out of Junior College by choosing to accept the financial aid money offered through FAFSA over an athletic scholarship. It seemed like a no-brainer at the time. My athletic scholarship covered 50% percent of my out-of-state tuition, while my financial aid covered closer to 60% percent. In my effort to save my parents and I a couple thousand dollars I unknowingly shifted the entire course of my college baseball career in a major way.

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. –Mark Twain

What I failed to realize in accepting my financial aid is that I was no longer guaranteed a spot on the 35 man roster. Thats right. If you are “On Scholarship,” you are almost certain to be dressed in uniform on February 19th to start the season. While your performance still determines the amount of playing time you receive, coaches are more obligated to invest in you as a player since you’re already on the team come spring time.

NCAA Divison 1 Baseball programs are limited to offering a total of 11.7 full scholarships at any given point, regardless of the school’s price for tuition. However those full scholarships are almost always divided into smaller chunks to ensure that enough high-quality talent enrolls at their school. The lowest amount of scholarship money a team can offer to a player is 25% of the school’s tuition. Hypothetically, 27 players on the roster can receive an athletic scholarship in a given year.

This creates a demanding atmosphere for the players who choose financial aid. The coach may only have around 5 roster spots available for guys that are not on scholarship and are battling to make the team. Once the 35 man roster has been decided the day before the season starts, there cannot be any more additions, even if there is an injury. Furthermore, coaches use this opportunity to better the team and increase their job security by capitalizing on the unused scholarship money. When a player chooses to accept their financial aid, coaches can then use the money to recruit another player to the squad, making it that much harder for the player accepting financial aid to make the team.

Because I was (and still am) a financial aid player, my coach had the ability to leave me off the roster for 2015 season… and he did. I had already redshirted my freshman year of junior college, and therefore I lost a full year of athletic eligibility. Players at the Division 1 level are given five years to compete in four seasons. This is known as a player’s 5-year clock , and it begins when an athlete first enrolls as a full time student in college.

Losing a year of eligibility can be detrimental to an athlete’s career and its important to remember that coaches will say and do almost anything to make their team better. There are number of unethical tactics that coaches use to in order to capitalize on NCAA constraints. These are some to look out for:

The Appeal of Financial Aid
Coaches will look to assist you with the financial aid process prior to offering an athletic scholarship. This strategy is performed in hopes that you will join their program at no cost to them at all. In addition, coaches may tailor their scholarship offer based on how much money your financial aid offers you. If your financial aid is slightly more, you may wind up taking the bait like I did.

Combining Financial Aid and Scholarships
As we discussed earlier, a player can either accept their financial aid from FAFSA or accept an athletic scholarship. They cannot accept both. As I was being recruited by UC Santa Barbara in 2014, I was told by assistant coach Eddie Cornejo that FAFSA would cover 100% of my tuition, which was a lot more than the 25% athletic scholarship they were offering. When asked if I could combine my athletic scholarship and financial aid together, and then return the extra 25% as part of a unique deal, Eddie said that they could make that arrangement. Do not be fooled! If one was to somehow combine a scholarship offer and financial aid together, the additional money from the financial aid would be removed from the team’s scholarship fund.

Committing without a National Letter of Intent
A National Letter of Intent or NLI is a binding agreement that ensures that you will be receiving an athletic scholarship. Until the Letter of Intent is complete, coaches can withdraw their offer for whatever reason. A common reason is due to the 11.7 full scholarship limit we discussed earlier. Some coaches will over-recruit players in hopes that one of their juniors will be taken in the MLB Draft. If a player is not drafted or decides to stay with his collegiate team for his senior year, the scholarship money which was verbally promised may no longer be available. This can be an especially tough situation for a player who has already turned down other offers without the security of an NLI.

Overall, joining a team at the college level is a tricky business. You need to just as prepared off the field as you are on the field as your decisions may have a larger effect on your career than any game you might play.