Sports Scholarships Are a Lie

Why are they such a big part of the high school narrative?

Photo by Lucas Andrade at Pexels.

We take our kids very seriously here in my earnest suburb that sits next to a well-educated university town. And when our kids go to school, there is one phrase we hear over and over again: “This may help your child get a scholarship.”

I’ve always wondered, how many scholarships can there be?

So I started to look into it. And here’s what I think I’ve learned: Sports scholarships are a lie.

The game is a game

America, for being a rather young whippersnapper of a country, has a lot of mythology. And one of our most popular and enduring myths is that of the scrappy student athlete who is a rags-to-riches success story, using athletic prowess to get an education and become wealthy for life.

We love these stories so much that we make them bestselling books and hugely popular movies. Think Michael Lewis’s The Blind Side (about NFL football player Michael Oher) and Caron Butler’s Tuff Juice: My Journey From the Streets To the NBA.

But how many athletes do sports scholarships actually help?

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a lot. Their website is a lesson in positive messaging…