Division 3 Does Offer Scholarships, Just Not Athletic

NCAA Division III Athletics is the largest division consisting of 443 member institutions. Division III schools are not permitted per NCAA rules to give scholarships based on athletic ability, but that does not take away from the level of competition. Many D-3 programs offer tremendous environments for not only learning but also college athletics. For example, an ESPN poll ranks the rivalry between Hope College and Calvin College, both small liberal arts D3 schools in West Michigan, as the 4th best rivalry in all of college basketball. That says a lot about the environment those two teams compete in.

D-3 schools are typically small, private, Liberal Arts colleges. In many cases they are old schools with a storied history and beautiful little (secluded) campuses. While many have excellent academic curriculums, they are limited in their offerings - at least compared to the larger universities. If you are planning on a degree in restoration of historic churches, you probably don't want to go there.

On the other hand, if you are looking, for example, for a solid foundation for law or med school many of these schools have a lot to offer. Unfortunately, due to the fact these schools are private; they are forced to charge higher tuition. As mentioned above, these schools are forbidden by NCAA rules from offering athletic scholarships. On the other hand, they are perfectly capable of offering an academic scholarship to a high school athlete with a good GPA and/or a high ACT/SAT score. Because they are mostly private schools with rather high tuitions, these colleges recognize that they must offer some financial assistance to entice student interest. Many have this ability because they are older schools and are heavily endowed. In any case, if you are good student and a good, but not-necessarily-professional-caliber athlete, these schools may be just what you are looking for. Keep in mind that when these schools offer scholarship money for academics they also are looking for students who will give back to the school by participating in activities or playing a sport. As we said earlier on in this tutorial however, an athlete cannot make the decision in his or her senior year to go after aid based on academic achievement. This has to start with the freshman year in high school. One last interesting fact about D-3: by not offering college scholarships D-3 schools are able to offer more sports and teams. For example, a lot of D-3 schools will offer a JV team, which not only offers more athletes the option to play college sports, it also offers the ability to season yourself before making the jump to the Collegiate Varsity level.

If you think D3 might be the place for you it is important to examine all avenues to divert the cost. There are several services online that help students find money for school that they otherwise might not be aware of. For example, FastWeb Free Scholarship Search , a Monster company, offers a no cost searchable database with something like 600,000 searchable scholarships. It is certainly worth the time of signing up. The same goes for Scholarships Experts and many other free services that only require a couple minutes to sign up but could turn out to be worth a lot more.

Be Realistic: Everyone is NOT a Division 1 Player!

NCAA Division II Athletics consists of 285 member institutions. These schools, while recognizing the benefit of college athletics to the college community, typically do not put the emphasis on sports (read: do not spend the money on sports) that most Division 1 schools do. Their facilities are typically not on par with the D-1 institutions and often they do not have the student body participation that their more famous D-1 brother-institutions have. This is not to say that the playing experience will not be a worthwhile endeavor, but rather that there may not be a three hundred member marching band leading you out to the field for your first game in front of a hundred thousand rabid fans.

The decision of a University Board to make their school a D-2 school may lead from a perceived inability to compete at a higher level (as in the case of a new or growing institution) or from a conscious decision to downplay the importance of sports in the college environment. It is not directly correlated to the size of the university - there are many large D-2 schools (larger than many of the D-1 schools) and there are many small D-2 schools that could conceivably drop to D-3. Just as some private schools like Notre Dame, Stanford, and Duke choose to compete at the D-1 level with only a fraction of the student body of a large public university, so many small schools choose to stay at the D-2 level. Regarding the quality of the athletic teams the D-2 coaches have scholarships to offer, although not as many as the D-1 coaches. The problem of course is in the "pecking order" that accompanies the recruiting process. Typically, the D-2 coach recruits only after the major and the mid-level D-1 coaches. Top notch athletes, especially those with professional aspirations, will obviously look for scholarships from high profile universities with excellent facilities and a high degree of national exposure. You will see few of them at the D-2 level. The mid-level programs will pick up the borderline cases and athletes that they feel were underestimated by the major coaches. After this the D-2 coach goes to work. They have the same opportunity as the mid-level coach to pick up an over-looked or underestimated athlete, but in general his picks are obviously more limited than the D-1 coaches who preceded him. But it's not all doom and gloom. In some sports, certain positions are harder to fill than others and D-1 coaches have a distinct advantage. In basketball, for example, high quality big men are always at a premium. The D-1 coaches quickly tie up all the available talent, in some cases tracking the players all through their high school careers. On the other hand, there is probably an over abundance of good guards in any given recruiting year. Even after the D-1 coaches have filled their need there are still quality athletes available. The D-2 coach is perhaps not as hampered in this area. For this reason, one will find the difference between guard play at a D-1 and D-2 school to be less than the difference between post players. [Note that this also may mean that a big man with even mediocre talent probably has a better chance of making it than a small man with a higher degree of athletic ability.] But the D-2 coach also has another opportunity to add quality players to his team.

Looking through a successful Division II program's roster you will often find several players who have transferred from Division I schools for personal reasons, location reasons, or more playing time. These players may be very close in ability to those playing for the D-1 program. For some it may be a case of them simply giving up their dream of playing professionally and no longer wishing to devote the time in a major program. Going back to our reasons for playing college sports, they drop from category #1 to say, #2, #3, or #4. These players offer high quality performance to the D-2 fan while fulfilling their personal need for financial aid toward a college degree. A last source of recruits for the D-2 coach is the Junior Colleges. Just as was the case with the D-1 transfers he will look for players who have given up on their D-1 and /or professional dreams. A player who is having difficulty getting noticed shouldn't overlook this avenue to a four year college sport career. Adding them to the mix of other transfers and high school recruits provides a reasonably high level of play in many D-2 programs.

There is a stigma attached to Division II athletics, that being that they are inherently inferior to Div-I. While this may be true in the general case it is not always true. Many Division II schools compete against and even beat Division I schools. In fact some Div-1 schools avoid playing their D-2 counterparts to avoid the possibility of an embarrassing upset. Several years ago we happened to witness a basketball game between a mid-major and their cross town rival. The game was going bad for the D-1 school until they threw in a 30 foot desperation shot to win in the last seconds. The D-2 school had clearly outplayed their opponent and the D-1 coach said so after the game. Sure the D-2 team finished the season ranked in the top 10 nationally. However, the D-1 school also ended up winning their conference and tournament titles and playing in the Big Dance. There they upset one of the major basketball power-houses before bowing out. They were clearly not a patsy. But at least that year, the difference between them and the D-2 school was very little.

The bottom line is that Division 2 offers an excellent path to achieving that college degree so long as you are not intent on pursing a career in professional sports. [In fact, a few professional players do come out of D-2 programs including some very fine ones - Ben Wallace and Charles Oakley come quickly to mind.] And while most of the D-2 universities are not as well known as their D-1 brothers, it some cases it is simply because they do field impressive sports teams that the uninformed public views them as "inferior universities. In fact, in our home state the third ranked school in the state is a NCAA D-2 school even though there are 7 NCAA D-1 schools that could have grabbed the top spots (if the NCAA category had anything to do with quality of education). In terms of an education this is clearly a reasonable option.

5 Keys to a Basketball Scholarship

Last week we put together a list of five keys that will help you to a football scholarship offer. But since I know football is not the only sport that athletes out there play, I thought I would do something forbasketball as well.

While the sports are similar in the chase for a scholarship, the one major difference is AAU. Football camps cannot compare to the fact that top basketball players spend a good portion of July on the road playing in tournaments. And in order to get a major Division I scholarship, I feel that they basically have to do this. Find out what is included in the top five now.

1.) Playing for an AAU team that travels nationally
Here is what Tennessee head basketball coach Bruce Pearl said recently about the basketball recruiting process: “If you’re in the AAU program and you’ve got a decent team, then the summertime is when you’ve got a chance go make a name for yourself. You can’t hunt bear in the lodge, so kids have got to go out there at these tournaments and give us a chance to evaluate them.” Playing on an AAU team that travels the country in tournaments is the #1 factor in getting a Division I basketball offer. I have seen numerous kids get scholarships simply because they played on a good AAU team. They had to play well at the right times but this certainly beats sitting at home working out with your teammates. With basketball, I cannot stress the importance of getting on the AAU circuit.

2.) Skill/Abilities
Unlike football, skills and abilities does trump size for college basketball. That is the reason why you will occasionally see a 5-foot-6 point guard or a 6-foot-6 center at the Division I level. They just have more abilities as well as a knack for playing beyond their size. The skill level of basketball players needs to be high and that is why there will be some smaller players on the court. It is because they have some abilities and know how to play the game.

3.) Size/Athleticism
College coaches will take chances with projects but they want players who can contribute early and often. Most of these coaches know that if they recruit the wrong players, it will likely cost them their job. That is why a project is much harder for a basketball coach to take versus a football coach. These basketball coaches are limited in the amount of scholarships that they have every year so they have to be careful. Taking too many projects that don’t pan out could easily get you fired.

4.) Work Ethic
There is no doubt that being a gym rat definitely can help you in the chase for a scholarship. But if you are not big enough, don’t play for a good AAU team, and lack the ability, it doesn’t matter if you workout twelve hours a day. God-given talent will trump work ethic at times in the chase for a scholarship. It sucks but it is true.

5.) Grades/Character
I hate to say that this is last on the list but it seems academics and character are even less important at the Division I level in hoops. Obviously you want the #1 player in the country to have fantastic grades and strong character (see Harrison Barnes) but it doesn’t always happen that way. The other areas are more important. However, having good grades and strong character can open the door for more opportunities if you find the right situation. Posted by admin | September 9, 2009