Understanding Baseball Scholarships

Kelly Kulina: Your Link to the Colleges

Undoubtedly, financial aid is one of the most confusing pieces of the college search process. Balancing college visits, letter writing, and applications can be a difficult task on its own, but trying to add the scholarship component without a full understanding of the process can be downright frustrating. There is no cookie-cutter system with differences among divisions, conferences and individual schools. I’d like to take this entry to address some common misconceptions and give you a coach’s perspective on the distribution of athletic scholarships.

Unlike football and basketball, which are allotted 85 and 12 full scholarships, respectively, Division I baseball only has a maximum of 11.7 scholarships at a time for the entire team. Rather than giving each player a “full ride,” baseball coaches are given the responsibility of dividing the total scholarships among their players, deciding how much and to whom. This makes baseball an “equivalency sport.” Given a roster cap of 35 players, a maximum of 27 players can be on scholarship, with the minimum athletic scholarship level at 25%. Typically, positions in the middle of the field get the most attention first: pitchers, catchers, middle infielders and center fielders with speed. These positions comprise 65-80% of a program’s scholarship budget.

One glaring misconception I need to point out is that not all Division I programs have the full 11.7 scholarships. In reality, only half are considered to be fully funded. This makes the concept of a full ride to play college baseball everything but a myth: baseball has the second-lowest average scholarship award at $5,806, leading only men’s riflery! Furthermore, there is no such thing as a guaranteed four-year scholarship. Coaches will evaluate the player’s performance on the field and in the classroom, along with their scholarship on an annual basis. In most cases, the scholarships will only go up, but I have seen and heard of player’s scholarships being reduced and/or taken away completely.

Parents, you need to be prepared to significantly fund your son’s college education. All coaches understand the financial burden families face to send their children to college. However, you cannot get caught up in the value of a scholarship--it is not a translation of your son's worth, nor does it dictate playing time! All coaches have the task of putting together the best team possible, many with limited funding, and have to address both priorities and depth. To put this in another perspective, a 30% or more athletic scholarship is considered a major commitment on behalf of the institution.

A while ago, I wrote a blog entry about how I put together teams at the University of Maryland and what I looked for in prospective players. In addition to the “Three Aces” that I mentioned, there is one critical “4th Ace” that I left out: affordability. In addition to finding ACC-caliber players that had the grades to be admitted to the University of Maryland, I also had to recruit players that had the financial means to attend! Not only was it extremely challenging to find players that matched all three criteria, but I considered myself fortunate to get two of three.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of other options out there for financial aid, including FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), academic scholarships, and grants. The key to securing these different packages is to be proactive and do your research. You’ll never know until you’ve applied, and you can’t afford to wait around!

As a wrap-up, here is the breakdown of each division’s scholarship allotment:

NCAA Division I: 11.7
NCAA Division II: 9.0
Junior College: DI and DII: 24 DIII: 0
NCAA Division III: 0
NAIA: 12


Kelly Kulina is the Senior Vice President of College Recruiting at Baseball Factory. Kulina is a former Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator with the University of Maryland. As a former recruiting coordinator for ten years in the ACC, Kulina has vast contacts and is widely respected throughout the nation. From 1989 to 2000, Kulina coached 46 players who were selected in the MLB draft.