Academic aid counting against athletic scholarships?

[Dad of Daughters]

Need some help from those familiar with the recruiting and aid process. Had a DII coach tell me that one challenge they are facing is that at their school, any academic or merit aid that the student athlete accepts has to count against the amount of athletic scholarships they are allowed to award. If I'm understanding this correctly, it seems this would severely hamper that coach's ability to put together competitive packages for athletes who are good students as well as good players. It would certainly be a competitive disadvantage if another school in that same league, with the same sticker price tag, that might be recruiting the same student athlete was able to "stack" athletic aid on top of academic and possibly need based aid as well (not sure how need based aid enters in to the equation in the situation at the original school I talked about above).

Has anyone had experience with this or can anyone explain what I might be missing here? Thanks in advance.

 

[Run26]

Need some help from those familiar with the recruiting and aid process. Had a DII coach tell me that one challenge they are facing is that at their school, any academic or merit aid that the student athlete accepts has to count against the amount of athletic scholarships they are allowed to award. If I'm understanding this correctly, it seems this would severely hamper that coach's ability to put together competitive packages for athletes who are good students as well as good players. It would certainly be a competitive disadvantage if another school in that same league, with the same sticker price tag, that might be recruiting the same student athlete was able to "stack" athletic aid on top of academic and possibly need based aid as well (not sure how need based aid enters in to the equation in the situation at the original school I talked about above).

Has anyone had experience with this or can anyone explain what I might be missing here? Thanks in advance.

This is correct and it happens to a lot of DII schools. It has something to do with how the institution is funding their athletic program. When you have to take in consideration academic as the same as athletic money then the school isn't actually fully funding the sport. It ensures the school doesn't give all their student athletes full rides (with both) allowances. The school requires the athlete to pay into the university so the school can stay afloat.

 

[Comp]

If the student qualifies for the acedimic or merit aid I have no idea why it would count against the athletic scholarship funds. That is the benefit of players having excellent grades, if they get into school on acedemic scholarships they are free to the various athletic teams and it frees up that athletic money for other players.

My daughter played 2 years of D1 ball. Her JUCO grades were good enough the school was able to offer her in state tuition, a full tuition waiver and some money towards books. Her coach also provided her some additional funds from athletics, but she was essentially free to him because of her acedemics.

 

[Run26]

If the student qualifies for the acedimic or merit aid I have no idea why it would count against the athletic scholarship funds. That is the benefit of players having excellent grades, if they get into school on acedemic scholarships they are free to the various athletic teams and it frees up that athletic money for other players.

My daughter played 2 years of D1 ball. Her JUCO grades were good enough the school was able to offer her in state tuition, a full tuition waiver and some money towards books. Her coach also provided her some additional funds from athletics, but she was essentially free to him because of her acedemics.

That's D1 - the OP was in reference to D2 ball and yes academic aid can count against athletic funds in D2.

 

[Dad of Daughters]

This is correct and it happens to a lot of DII schools. It has something to do with how the institution is funding their athletic program. When you have to take in consideration academic as the same as athletic money then the school isn't actually fully funding the sport. It ensures the school doesn't give all their student athletes full rides (with both) allowances. The school requires the athlete to pay into the university so the school can stay afloat.

Thanks Run. So if it is an institutional strategy or policy, it is very possible that another Ohio DII might not handle things this way? In other words:

School A offer: 15K of a 40K price tag is academic aid, they have to count that and choose (understandably) to not go higher with athletic aid = student owes 25K/yr.
School B offer: 15K of a 40K price tag is academic aid, they don't have to count that and also offer 15K athletic aid = student owes 10K/yr.

 

[Heavy Hitter]

Need some help from those familiar with the recruiting and aid process. Had a DII coach tell me that one challenge they are facing is that at their school, any academic or merit aid that the student athlete accepts has to count against the amount of athletic scholarships they are allowed to award. If I'm understanding this correctly, it seems this would severely hamper that coach's ability to put together competitive packages for athletes who are good students as well as good players. It would certainly be a competitive disadvantage if another school in that same league, with the same sticker price tag, that might be recruiting the same student athlete was able to "stack" athletic aid on top of academic and possibly need based aid as well (not sure how need based aid enters in to the equation in the situation at the original school I talked about above).

Has anyone had experience with this or can anyone explain what I might be missing here? Thanks in advance.

You are correct by NCAA rules academic scholarships don't count against the number of athletic scholarships a school can give. With that being said what a school allows is sometimes different then what the NCAA allows.

Now if you are talking what an individual athlete can receive that is different. If a student receives 50% academic scholarship the most they can receive from an athletic scholarship is 50%.

 

[Maxx]

This varies among schools, not just D2 schools I coached at a D1, not in Ohio, where academic aid counted against your athletic in certain cases. For example, our largest academic award was $20,000. So we could offer that kid $20,000 in athletic aid as well for a $40,000 total aid package and not be penalized. But if we wanted to offer a full ride to that particular player, which would have been $54,000, then that entire $54,000 would have to come from the athletic aid pool. It does hurt your recruiting strategy because for the most part you are not offering anything over $40,000 total academic/athletic except in rare instances of an extremely talented player. Again, this was an institutional policy.

 

[Dad of Daughters]

This varies among schools, not just D2 schools I coached at a D1, not in Ohio, where academic aid counted against your athletic in certain cases. For example, our largest academic award was $20,000. So we could offer that kid $20,000 in athletic aid as well for a $40,000 total aid package and not be penalized. But if we wanted to offer a full ride to that particular player, which would have been $54,000, then that entire $54,000 would have to come from the athletic aid pool. It does hurt your recruiting strategy because for the most part you are not offering anything over $40,000 total academic/athletic except in rare instances of an extremely talented player. Again, this was an institutional policy.

Thanks for that example Maxx. One thing that still doesn't make sense about my original situation is this: I have a hard time believing that the total academic aid awarded to players on this team, which by policy of this school counts as athletic aid to softball players, doesn't total over the amount that 7.2 scholarships would be equal to. So in effect by counting the academic money as both, aren't they going over the NCAA DII limit for athletic scholarships?

 

[Maxx]

Thanks for that example Maxx. One thing that still doesn't make sense about my original situation is this: I have a hard time believing that the total academic aid awarded to players on this team, which by policy of this school counts as athletic aid to softball players, doesn't total over the amount that 7.2 scholarships would be equal to. So in effect by counting the academic money as both, aren't they going over the NCAA DII limit for athletic scholarships?

Academic money doesn't count toward the 7.2 scholarships at all per NCAA rules. If one of their academic scholarships covered the full amount the cost to attend, and it was available to ALL students, then technically they could have 15 kids on full academic rides. But that wouldn't make much financial sense for the university. So when you say 7.2 scholarships, that is strictly athletic money that they university only makes available to athletes based upon athletic performance. Many D2 schools do not have the full allotment of 7.2. I worked at a D2 that had a total equivalency of 2 athletic scholarships. But our tuition was really low and we had nice sized academic awards, so I could still offer pretty good combined packages. There is a science to the #'s game that parents and kids don't understand. And it is different at each school.

I once had a kid who had the following package at a school where total cost to attend was $32,000: $20,000 academic, $2500 athletic, $8000 federal grant = $30,500. She had the second biggest total package on the team, but after her freshman year, when she found out she had one of the lowest athletic scholarship amounts, she was upset because in her mind she felt that we didn't think she was a good player. She could not grasp the concept that her athletic package was so small based upon her large amounts of academic and federal aid.

 

[backstop09]

I once had a kid who had the following package at a school where total cost to attend was $32,000: $20,000 academic, $2500 athletic, $8000 federal grant = $30,500. She had the second biggest total package on the team, but after her freshman year, when she found out she had one of the lowest athletic scholarship amounts, she was upset because in her mind she felt that we didn't think she was a good player. She could not grasp the concept that her athletic package was so small based upon her large amounts of academic and federal aid.

Sounds like a very good student with a relatively significant financial need and a coach was trying to use that to get her to play ball for next to nothing. I'd be mad, too if I was her. Assume she's committed to D2 softball 10 months of the year at 20 hours a week. That's 800 hours. If she's receiving $2,500, she's being paid $3.13 an hour . She could make more money than that waiting on tables, serving an internship, or passing out smiley stickers at WalMart.

 

[cork34]

Understand that the coaches, D1 or D2, are running a business and they have to deal with their budgets, Athletic Money. Yes the coaches work with their academic liaison to find out how much the student athlete will qualify for academic scholarships. Why do the coaches always ask to have your transcripts sent to admissions (not only to see if you can get into the school) but see how much you will qualify for in academic scholarships. The more you can get in academic money the less you need to spend in athletic money. In turn letting more players get athletic money. The coaches are looking at the total money available that can be provided to the athlete. This is a balancing act but also good business practice. The coach is the CEO of Softball and takes the responsibility for getting every dollar from every source to recruit and maintain a team. Bottom line the Academic Money does not count against Athletic Money.

 

[Maxx]

Sounds like a very good student with a relatively significant financial need and a coach was trying to use that to get her to play ball for next to nothing. I'd be mad, too if I was her. Assume she's committed to D2 softball 10 months of the year at 20 hours a week. That's 800 hours. If she's receiving $2,500, she's being paid $3.13 an hour . She could make more money than that waiting on tables, serving an internship, or passing out smiley stickers at WalMart.

I told her if she had a better package available at another school, that's where she should go. She should have been more offended that abolutely zero other schools offered her any athletic money.

She thought her financial aid package was awesome till she found out what other players were getting. She knew what the breakdown was prior to committing. Why was her package so amazing when accepting it, but not so amazing One year later?? Is it about status or getting a quality education at a great pricetag?? If it's about the status, those are exactly the kids (or parents) that we avoid recruiting.

Like cork34 says in the comment above, this is a business. My career depends upon the decisions we make recruiting teenagers. When it comes to putting together financial aid packages, it is a numbers crunching game where we have to put together the best possible recruiting class with the money we have available. It's amazing how many players/parents think an aid package is great when accepting it, then a year later they are asking for more money. If you had a better offer on the table in the beginning, you should have taken it.

 

[Maxx]

By the way, we are only permitted to work with them for 20 hours for 6 months out of the year. And I worked at Walmart while attending college.....no shame in that at all.

 

[Fairman]

If you are a fortunate parent of a dd that has great grades and is an athlete do not concern yourself with the NCAA/Institution's scholarship rules. The Institution and the Coach has to follow them and it is far to complicated for a mere parent to anticipate all the ins and outs that might affect your dd.

You need to focus on the educational experience that your dd will receive at that Institution and the bottom-line that you'll pay, in that order.

You don't care a hoot about anyone else, just your dd and your costs. This myopic focus will keep you from loosing your mind. There will be academic money, athletic money, maybe room and board, and maybe books. Add all of this up, subtract it from the costs and you'll have a cost of a year at that school.

A coach will protect their athletic money. If a financial package can be crafted that would involve no athletic money so much the better. The kid above is a spoiled brat. She is being paid $500 per Game ($22,500/45games) and getting an education to boot.

Go ahead and have her work at Walmart and see what she gets out of that in four years.

 

[BouldersDad]

When parents fill out their FASFA they should be jumping for joy if their dd has received anything. If you are a typical middle class American family you soon discover FASFA is not your friend and will take anything you can get to lesson the burden of paying for college. The normal is about 30% assistance. If the college is 30k a year the parental contribution adds up fast. Gently smack the said child in the back of the head and give her a reality check and remind her that in 4 years she is going to be repaying what ever she diddnt get a schollie for academic or athletic. So enjoy what ever bit of free ride you achieved.