Sometimes my job involves being a “dream crusher”.  It’s not a part of the job I like. 

I often have students - or parents - come into my office with the expectation that their son or daughter will be able to play their sport in college.  For some, this is a realistic option.  For others, not so much. 

To start off, here are some facts about collegiate sports and athletic scholarships:

1. A lot of athletes contend for limited opportunities.  There are 7,400,000 High School Student Athletes and 460,000 NCAA Student Athletes.  In other words, about 6% of Student Athletes will end up being able to compete in college.

2. The odds of winning a NCAA sports scholarship are long. Only about 2 percent of high school athletes win sports scholarships every year at NCAA colleges and universities. For those who do snag one, the average scholarship is less than $11,000.

3. Full-ride sports scholarships are in short supply. There are only six sports where all the scholarships are full ride. These so-called head-count sports are football, men and women's basketball, and women's gymnastics, volleyball, and tennis. In these Division I sports, athletes receive a full ride or no ride.

4. Scholarship amounts can be modest. Beyond the head-count sports, all other sports are considered "equivalency" sports. NCAA rules dictate how much money a program, such as lacrosse or track, can spend on scholarships. Coaches can slice and dice these awards as they choose, which can lead to smaller scholarships than you might expect.

5. Take flattery with a grain of salt. Coaches may tell teenagers that they have lots of scholarship money to divvy out, but prospective student athletes shouldn't assume that they will be the recipients. A coach might not know whether he wants a particular athlete until he finds out what other teenagers want to sign on to his team and then he may drop you.

6. A verbal commitment may be meaningless. There is no guarantee that an athlete who verbally commits to a team will end up on it. A coach can change his mind about a prospect.

7. Playing high-level college sports will be a full-time job. Division I athletes may as well be called full-time employees of their schools because of the long hours they “work” to fulfill their sport commitment.  According to a NCAA survey last year, playing football required 43.3 hours per week; college baseball, 42.1 hours; men's basketball, 39.2 hours; and women's basketball, 37.6 hours. Because of the huge time commitment, as well as time away from campus, Division I athletes will often find it extremely difficult to major in rigorous disciplines, such as the sciences and engineering. If this is the case, having the ability to play a Division I sport does not always mean that one should.  Division III schools should be under consideration in certain scenarios. 

With all of this in mind, here are some ways to determine if your student/athlete can compete in college.  Keep in mind that we are working to determine if they can compete collegiately as well as which NCAA Division (NCAA Division I, II, or III or NAIA) is the best fit for their abilities.   

Timed/measured sports are easier to discern.  For swimming or track & field, one can look at a “time” (distance, etc.) and know whether they will be able to compete collegiately by comparing their times against how fast the student/athletes are swimming, running, etc. in college.  Generally, coaches want to see that a student/athlete can “score” for them in their Athletic Conference to determine if they will make the roster and/or receive some sort of athletic scholarship funding.  Obviously, the faster they are, the more money they may receive.  We can look at CollegeSwimming.com, for example, and see if a swimmer’s current times could score in any particular conference as well as where her times would place her on a given college roster.  In this way, we can tell if they have a hope of competing for that college - or for that matter, any college.

For “subjective” sports (soccer, softball, basketball, etc…) it’s a bit harder to determine whether they could compete collegiately as well as which NCAA Division they are best suited for.  This is done through a series of steps such as communicating to coaches followed by sending video of their play, participating in ID Camps and college showcases, etc… to get “exposure”.  As we start writing to coaches, we watch to see which college coaches are writing back with possible interest, which, in turn, helps us direct our search towards the best athletic fit (Division I, Division II or Division III or NAIA).  If no coaches write back, this is an answer as well.  For certain sports, it’s also telling if an athlete made their Varsity high school team freshman or sophomore year verses later years.  And if they were never on Varsity, well…..

In closing, while I don’t want to discourage student/athletes from pursuing their dream of playing collegiate athletics, at the same time, it’s about being realistic with their chances of competing at this extremely competitive next level.