If you meet one of the 3 criteria set for academic money, how does that work in conjunction with athletic money? Can you only get academic scholarship money or athletic money? Can you combine the two?
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Home,
I'm sure you'll get others on the site with more information but here's a start.
Not only is it possible to combine (we call it blend) academic and baseball money, it's almost required to get any kind of decent package for baseball.
A D1 school will have 11.7 scholarships allowed and many schools don't fund all of those. A D2 school is allowed 9. Those totals must cover the entire team (all 4 years including redshirts). Thus, if a team carries a 30 man roster (small in many schools) it has an average of 1/3 baseball money per man. Even that is distorted since, in general terms, the bulk of the money goes to pitchers and middle infielders.
As a result, college coaches seek to blend as much academic money as they can in recruiting a player. All things being equal, a kid with good grades will cost the baseball program less than a kid with marginal grades. I can tell you from years of talking to recruiters about players that the second question I get asked is "What are his grades?" If they can't get him into school or keep him eligible they quickly lose interest.
Also, keep in mind that by NCAA rules, baseball money is "one year" money. Academic money is generally 4 year money if the student maintains a required GPA.
Others will have additional insight but I hope this gets you started.
I'm sure you'll get others on the site with more information but here's a start.
Not only is it possible to combine (we call it blend) academic and baseball money, it's almost required to get any kind of decent package for baseball.
A D1 school will have 11.7 scholarships allowed and many schools don't fund all of those. A D2 school is allowed 9. Those totals must cover the entire team (all 4 years including redshirts). Thus, if a team carries a 30 man roster (small in many schools) it has an average of 1/3 baseball money per man. Even that is distorted since, in general terms, the bulk of the money goes to pitchers and middle infielders.
As a result, college coaches seek to blend as much academic money as they can in recruiting a player. All things being equal, a kid with good grades will cost the baseball program less than a kid with marginal grades. I can tell you from years of talking to recruiters about players that the second question I get asked is "What are his grades?" If they can't get him into school or keep him eligible they quickly lose interest.
Also, keep in mind that by NCAA rules, baseball money is "one year" money. Academic money is generally 4 year money if the student maintains a required GPA.
Others will have additional insight but I hope this gets you started.
I believe that if athletic money is used to "top up" academic money for tuition, the entire amount counts against the 11.7, so most coaches won't want to do that. However, with academic tuition money, athletic money can be given to cover housing, books, and/or meal plan without the academic tuition award being counted against the 11.7.
Grades are always an early question because of maintaining eligibility. Nobody wants to waste a years worth of scholarship money on a guy who will struggle academically.
Grades are always an early question because of maintaining eligibility. Nobody wants to waste a years worth of scholarship money on a guy who will struggle academically.
Scholarship Blending
Equivalency and Scholarship blending is the result of combining athletic scholarship money and institutional financial rewards for academic honors. In laymen’s terms, this means that, provided you meet one of the four criteria, you can receive money from an institution that will not be counted towards the teams athletic scholarship equivalency. You must meet one of the following four conditions as a recruited S-A…
1. Rank in the top 10% of your high school class
2. Achieve a core GPA of 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) in HS
3. A minimum SAT score of 1200
4. A minimum ACT score of 105
Equivalency only applies to S-A’s that are receiving any athletic scholarship money. If you are receiving no athletic scholarship money from the team, any institutional aid you receive does not count towards the team’s equivalency. Student loans and federal financial aid does not count towards equivalency either, it is only money given to you directly from an institution.
Equivalency and Scholarship blending is the result of combining athletic scholarship money and institutional financial rewards for academic honors. In laymen’s terms, this means that, provided you meet one of the four criteria, you can receive money from an institution that will not be counted towards the teams athletic scholarship equivalency. You must meet one of the following four conditions as a recruited S-A…
1. Rank in the top 10% of your high school class
2. Achieve a core GPA of 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) in HS
3. A minimum SAT score of 1200
4. A minimum ACT score of 105
Equivalency only applies to S-A’s that are receiving any athletic scholarship money. If you are receiving no athletic scholarship money from the team, any institutional aid you receive does not count towards the team’s equivalency. Student loans and federal financial aid does not count towards equivalency either, it is only money given to you directly from an institution.
Keep in mind that all schools do not blend monies--it is their choice
TR or anyone else,
Is there any way to know whether or not a school would "blend" money, or is that something that would need to be discussed with the coach at the time that interest is expressed?
Is there any way to know whether or not a school would "blend" money, or is that something that would need to be discussed with the coach at the time that interest is expressed?
There's a "catch" in the NCAA Division I guideline that makes it SEEM like schools follow various policies with regard to blending. This "catch," which I copied from the regulation in the attached link, stipulates that academic money can only be "blended" with an athletic grant without it being counted against the 11.7 limit if the academic money is "part of an institution's normal arrangements for academic scholarships, awarded independently of athletics interests and in amounts consistent with the pattern of all such awards made by the institution." In other words, the granting of the academic money has to be consistent with that which would be awarded a student who is not an athlete.
The obvious effect of this clause is to make it extremeley difficult for the best schools academically to "blend" academic and athletic awards. Since the average student receiving academic aid likely has a stronger academic profile than many of the school's baseball players, most efforts to exclude academic aid to baseball players would run afoul of this clause.
HSBaseballWeb Page on "Scholarship Blending"
The obvious effect of this clause is to make it extremeley difficult for the best schools academically to "blend" academic and athletic awards. Since the average student receiving academic aid likely has a stronger academic profile than many of the school's baseball players, most efforts to exclude academic aid to baseball players would run afoul of this clause.
HSBaseballWeb Page on "Scholarship Blending"