NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

With spring fast approaching, colleges and universities are now beginning to notify students about the specifics of their financial aid packages in the form of award letters. In order to receive an award letter from a school you must first provide them with two things. First, they will need your application for admission, and second, you will need to submit your FAFSA information to them if you haven’t done so already. Once you have been accepted to a school you will receive an award letter which will detail all of the financial aid you will be receiving.Sometimes award letters come back covering enough costs and sometimes award letters may fall short of covering enough to help you afford a school. After receiving an award letter you do have the option of appealing that award in the hopes of securing additional financial aid for yourself, your son, or your daughter.

Here are a few tips to remember when writing an appeals letter to a college.

1) Always address the letter to the financial aid office, but remember to copy the coach when you send your letter. This will keep the coach in the loop and allow them to possibly put in a good word for you.
2) Begin the letter expressing your excitement about attending the college or university.
3) Expand on any expenses that may not be accurately reflected from the FAFSA and let the school know if there is any additional information you feel they need to consider. (Schools want to know about things like medical expenses for family members, not about things like credit card debt.)
4) Ask if there is any consideration the school can provide or if there is any additional funding available. Remember, never make demands in this letter.
5) Conclude the letter by again, expressing your excitement about the opportunity at this school. Also ask the school to contact you if they should need any additional information.
If you have received an award letter from another school, you may send a copy of that letter with your appeals letter so the college can evaluate this information and get back in touch with you accordingly.

When writing an appeals letter to the financial aid office there will be some times when a school may not have any additional aid to provide, but there will also be a large number of cases where you will be able to receive an additional $1000, $2000, or more. Remember, appealing your award decision is a part of the process, so do not feel bad about asking the question of these schools. The result cannot be harmful to you, but there is a tremendous upside!

Kyle Gohl, Baseball, Concordia (CA) University
John Boskovich, Jr, Baseball, Bethany (WV) College
Dane Stone, Baseball, St. Thomas University
John Lister, Football, University of Hawaii–Manoa
Will Cole, Football, Virginia Tech
Gaige Courtney, Football, Kentucky State University
Chad Jones, Football, Randolph-Macon College
Jonathon McNulty, Football, DePauw University
Bryce Johnston, Football, Northwest Missouri State University
Daric Huntt, Football, Florida Atlantic University
Price Garrett, Football, Georgia Southern University
Mike D’Ambrose, Football, University of St. Francis
Vincent Waller, Football, MidAmerica Nazarene University
Tanner Strein, Football, Lindsey Wilson College
Bobby McDonald, Football, Butler University
Dutch Hapgood, Football, Humboldt State University
Dylan Cox, Football, Graceland University
Max Martinez, Football, Cornell University
Cody Shaw, Football, University of Wisconsin–Stout
Riley Kubatzke, Football, St. Ambrose University
Emir Lopez, Football, University of Nevada–Reno
Justin Dunbar, Football, Bethany (KS) College
Hunter Adams, Football, Tusculum College
Steven Hamner, Football, Millsaps College
Cameron Loeffler, Football, University of Nevada–Reno
Michael Taubitz, Football, Trine University
Nathan Cronister, Football, Butler County CC-KS
Dominique Vega-Parker, Football, Eastern Arizona College
Phillip Gaines, Football, Savannah State University
Kerry Collins, Football, Webber International University
Donald Quarles, Football, Bucknell University
Jimmer Bennett, Football, Union (NY) College
Tristan Meyer, Football, East Texas Baptist University
Sean Rooks, Men’s Basketball, Catholic University of America
Kyle Short, Men’s Cross Country, Fairfield University
Morgan Brown, Men’s Soccer, Elmhurst College
Patrick Freeman, Men’s Soccer, Anderson University
Connor Stockton, Men’s Soccer, Lesley University
Sean Lunkenheimer, Men’s Track, Wake Forest University
Laura Murphy, Softball, Guilford College
Tabitha Poole, Softball, Guilford College
Taylor Martin, Softball, California State University–East Bay
Kassandra “Kassie” Corsi, Softball, Alfred University
Rebecca Ruggear, Women’s Basketball, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Maria Joyce, Women’s Basketball, Illinois Central College
Amanda Sumner, Women’s Track, University of Tennessee — Chattanooga
Nicholyn Carter-Maddux, Women’s Volleyball, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

Former college coach and current NCSA Recruiting Coach Joyce Wellhoefer on time management.

Every recruit has a different reason why they choose to take the plunge and make a commitment to a college.  Examining just one recruiting class reveals many different reasons, but points to one larger issue.  You’re much better off in making such an important decision if you’ve taken the time to get to know a school well.

Take a look at the 2009 women’s and men’s soccer recruiting classes at Western Washington University, a Division II school.  The Western Front, the schools school newspaper introduced their student body to Kayla Russ, Diana Pollock, Justin Moore, Chris Brundage and Sujinda “Jin” Dangvan.

Before signing his letter of intent for Western, Moore said he considered playing for Oregon State University and Seattle University.

However, Moore said Western’s friendly coaching staff convinced him Western was the right place for his collegiate soccer career.

“They make you feel like they want you on the team and to be a part of the program,” Moore said.  

Brundage said he debated between playing for the University of New Mexico and Western, but when he broke his knee during practice, he was unable to visit New Mexico and decided to sign his letter of intent to Western.

Dangvan’s stepfather, Lee Wanke, said although multiple universities contacted Dangvan trying to recruit him, he chose Western to pursue a degree in international business.

“From an academic standpoint, Western was the best choice,” Wanke said.

After looking into Seattle Pacific University and University of Washington, Pollock said she decided Western’s medium-sized campus was a good fit for her.

“I feel like I fit in and I’m not lost in the crowd,” Pollock said.

Russ, a 17-year-old defender, was a first-team all-Narrows League pick as a senior and team captain at Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma, Wash.

Her team won the league title and advanced to the Class 4A state quarterfinals. In addition, Russ plays for Washington Premier FC, which won the state title and advanced to the regional quarterfinals in 2008.

Although she considered Washington State University and Seattle Pacific University, Russ said the chemistry she observed between the players on the women’s team helped seal her decision to play for Western.

Five players with five different reasons for committing to Western; injury, academics, comfort with the coaching staff, campus size and team chemistry.  I guarantee that the majority of those recruits initially thought they would make their decision based on different factors.  However, after going through the process each player found a different reason. Is one any more correct than another?  Absolutely not, but it is clear that the earlier you start the recruiting process the longer you give yourself to find your reason to commit.

Every college sports fan rejoices this time of year for March Madness.  Its amazing to watch so many athletes compete on the same level.  Many of the players involved in the tournament will only have one opportunity to shine in front of the world, but that memory will last a life time.

Make the most of your college opportunity!

Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star recently examined the often contentious topic of paying college athletes.  His conclusion was simple:

 When athletes arrive at a Division I school, give them a choice: They can get a full-ride scholarship, with all the perks that involves, or offer them a salary of, say, $25,000 per year to work on their NBA, NFL or NHL degree.

That is, let them compete for the school, use the college as a paid minor league and do so as true mercenaries, with no requirement they go to class.

Not surprisingly the NCAA disagrees and fired back on the NCAA Double-A-Zone Blog.

First, Kravitz seems to suggest that all Division I grant-in-aid packages are for a full ride. In fact, many sports operate on an equivalency model in which partial awards are provided. This failure to distinguish between the two is a serious national misunderstanding, as noted in Bill Pennington’s excellent series last year in The New York Times. Since Kravitz appears to have equated $25,000 with the cost of an average full ride, his proposal would collapse of its own weight in the nonrevenue sports that provide equivalencies.

Kravitz also leaves the impression that college sports is awash in money, using the time-honored sportswriter tool of leading with the NCAA’s $6 billion media contract – conveniently omitting the contract’s term (11 years) and how the money is distributed (95 percent goes back to the membership one way or another).

NCAA President Myles Brand also weighed in on the column.

The reasons why this is a bad idea are far too numerous to present in this limited space. The overriding point is that it doesn’t solve the problem Kravitz thinks exists. Paying even only a few student-athletes would turn universities into entertainment corporations and misses the point that, for most, some college is better than none.

There are two other points that must be made.

First, it is unfair to the overwhelming majority of the 400,000 student-athletes who compete in college sports every year and are fully committed to earning degrees to single out this aspect of the college experience as the egregious anomaly that thrusts higher education into the abyss of hypocrisy.

To be fair, there are student-athletes who accept an athletics scholarship with no intention of staying for a degree. But there are also students, talented students, even prodigious students all over campus on every campus who receive scholarships but don’t remain to get their degrees. On average, in fact, 38 percent of all entering freshmen don’t. Are they all wasting classroom space and academic resources?
Of course not. And neither are the 36 percent of student-athletes who don’t graduate (fewer, on average, than all other students).

Second, for those whose preparatory record for college admission is acceptable (and it is immoral for coaches or anyone else on campus to recruit talented individuals who cannot do the academic work), any exposure to higher education is better than no exposure. One year is better than none. Two years is better than one.

The issue divides administrators and educators at every level.  It also divides fans and alumni.  Every time another pay for play scandal is uncovered the argument intensifies.  Where do you stand?

Every recruit needs to make difficult decisions during the recruiting process.  The decision process they go through when making those decisions can mean the difference in finding the right fit and transferring after a semester.  Izaan Cross, one of the country’s most highly recruited defensive ends ended up signing with Georgia Tech last month.  The Atlanta Journal Constitution spoke with Izaan on how he made his decision.

“There was one time in my recruiting process when I absolutely had no faith in Georgia Tech. I had them fourth on my list. They were number one at first and I thought ‘how am I going to do there academically?’” At one point, they were totally out of the equation. But ultimately, they were the best fit when I started to evaluate. I talked to a bunch of the players when I went on my official and they said ‘you really get helped out [academically] when you are a football player. They try to help you out with every obstacle to get your grades right.’ And I kept thinking if I get a Georgia Tech degree, I’ll be pretty solid no matter if I play football or not after college.”

His advice to other recruits is equally powerful.

 ”Don’t slack off in the classroom because that’s only going to make things harder in the long run. You get those first few [scholarship] offers and it makes it easy to lose focus on the academics.”

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.

In the current economic environment high schools and colleges are looking to cut costs in any way.  Unfortunately in some instances schools are looking to cut back their athletic budgets with some schools considering dropping entire sports.  The Broward School Board in Florida has proposed eliminating golf, tennis, water polo and boys’ volleyball to help cut $55 million from the overall budget.  Last year at Cypress Bay High School athletes received a total of $2.2 million dollars in athletic scholarships.   The proposal is being met with outrage by some:

Leo Jimenez, South Broward boys’ volleyball coach and former Sun Sentinel Coach of the year said: “What? Wow, that is ridiculous. We are growing the numbers so big around the state. Now they are taking it away from these kids.

“The dumbest thing you can do,” Jimenez said. “Not everyone can play basketball or football so they go to volleyball and water polo to be able to play a sport in high school.”

Should sports suffer so much in the current environment?  It is tough to make a definitive statement, but my opinion is that school districts need to make that take into consideration the amount of scholarship dollars at stake.  When making cuts districts need to factor in how they are potentially affecting the future education of their students.

The recruitment of Alshon Jeffrey made headlines this week, when some of Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin’s comments became public.  The comments did not paint a flattering picture of the final days of Jeffrey’s recruitment.  ESPN detailed the final hours before singing day.

Everybody knew that Jeffrey had re-opened his recruitment. Alabama tried to get in, and so did Florida. But he wasn’t giving much away publicly. He didn’t make his announcement until signing day in the Calhoun County High School gym.

The night before, he had a basketball game. His team just recently won its fourth straight state championship, and Jeffrey scored 25 points in the title game.

On the eve of signing day, his football coach, Walter Wilson, sensed that Jeffrey needed to get away from everything and took him to a hotel in nearby Orangeburg, S.C., to stay the night following his basketball game. Also there was one of Jeffrey’s high school teammates, Eric Mack, who will be one of the most highly recruited offensive linemen in the country next year.

“I knew I was going to South Carolina, and they knew,” Jeffrey said. “But I wasn’t ready to say it until the next day.”

There was obvious pressure for Jeffrey to stay in state, but he said it never rose to the level of making him uncomfortable.

“It’s just what I wanted to do, stay at home and help the home school,” he said. “I started looking at it from all different angles and not just football.”

There wasn’t much sleep that night in the hotel. Jeffrey said his last conversation with South Carolina assistant Shane Beamer, who was recruiting him for the Gamecocks, was around 12:45 a.m. But it was just getting started then.

He was still talking to coaches from Southern California and Tennessee until nearly 3 a.m.

“Alshon knew what he wanted,” Wilson said. “He’d turned down a chance to take a visit to Florida late in the process, so I knew that South Carolina was where his heart was. But you sit there and listen to those coaches all work their angles, and you’re like, ‘I wouldn’t want to be in this kid’s shoes.’”

Think about that final statement for a minute.  This is one of the highest rated players in the country with numerous scholarship options, yet his position was unenviable.  This is exactly why NCSA urges athletes to research and visit colleges so extensively.  By starting early and receiving expert guidance along the way, athletes can feel confident in thier commitments and know that they have found the right fit.