Hello Runningaway.
Please keep in mind, It's not that the highest academic D3 schools don't offer lots of merit money, In fact, most offer tons of merit money. The gigantic billion dollar endowments of these small private schools like Williams, Grinnell, Amherst, Pomona etc. feed that.
What I am saying is that since those schools attract the absolute cream of the crop applicants, the student must be exceptional to earn merit money. For instance a kid/player who is an honors/AP student with a 3.9 weighted GPA and a 2000 SAT may be admitted to a school like Tufts, particularly if he's a impact baseball recruit who the coach tags through admissions, however, that GPA/SAT won't qualify you for academic money - you'd need maybe a 4.4 and a 2200+ SAT to earn a sizable merit award at a school like that. However, the same 3.9/2000 kid might get $20,000+ a year at a highly selective D3 school just a notch or two lower in profile.