Scholarships & Financial Aid

Athletic vs. academic money, the FAFSA, and how aid packages really work.

Topic Overview

Athletic scholarships come in two shapes, and football has used both. Headcount aid is a set number of full rides. Equivalency aid is a pool the coach splits into partial awards across a bigger group. Unless you're one of the rare full-ride recruits, expect an athletic offer to cover part of the bill. A Division III school can't award anything for athletic ability at all, though a strong D3 can still put serious academic and need-based money behind a good student. The NAIA does award athletic money, usually in partial awards stacked with academic and need-based aid.

The rest of the package is the part worth learning. Academic and merit scholarships, institutional grants, federal and state need-based aid, and work-study all stack with athletic money, up to the ceiling of your cost of attendance. Most of that runs through the FAFSA, which opens October 1 for the following school year. The Expected Family Contribution is gone, replaced by the Student Aid Index.

These guides cover how the pieces stack, how to file, and how to read an aid letter closely enough to tell which offer is actually the cheaper one. The aid comparison tool runs that math side by side.

What these guides answer

How headcount and equivalency scholarships differ, and where NAIA and D3 money fits
Whether athletic aid is guaranteed for four years, and the July 1 renewal deadline
When to file the FAFSA, who counts as a contributor, and what the SAI is
The money families overlook because they assume the scholarship covers it
How to find the real number in an aid letter and compare offers on it