The NAIA is a college sports governing organization, kind of like the NCAA. NAIA colleges have to comply with rules similar to those in the NCAA. Generally speaking, rules pertaining to NAIA athletic scholarships are less stringent than those that apply to NCAA scholarships.

NAIA scholarship athletes receive an average of $7,000 of financial aid. Here are the 5 most important things to know when you try to lock down your NAIA scholarships (as opposed to NCAA scholarships):

1. No Clearinghouse - The NAIA has no clearinghouse like the NCAA Eligibility Center. That said, there are NAIA eligibility requirements: (1) you must have graduated from high school; and (2) meet two of the following three: have an ACT test score of at least 18 or an SAT of at least 860, have a GPA of at least 2.0, and finish in the top half of your graduating class.


2. Limited number of scholarships - As with the NCAA, teams are only allowed a certain number of NAIA scholarships, which are listed below.


3. Full funding - Just because a team is allowed to have, say 12 scholarships, doesn't mean that the college necessarily has the money to fund them. That team may actually only have 8 scholarships.


4. What counts as an athletic scholarship - Any money you get from the school, including athletic grants or scholarships, academic scholarships, leadership or performance awards, outside scholarships administered by the institution, and tuition waivers are considered athletic scholarships.


5. What doesn't count as an athletic scholarship - NAIA scholarships that aren't considered athletic aid are, scholarships "that are not funded, controlled, or allocated in any significant way by the institution." These include federal loans and Pell grants.

And finally, remember that any college athletic scholarships, whether NAIA or NCAA, can be dangerous. Taking this into account, you still might be interested in scholarships for your particular sport: softball scholarships, baseball scholarships, soccer scholarships, whatever. We know the finer points of them all.

NAIA Football Scholarships: 24

NAIA Baseball Scholarships: 12

NAIA Basketball Scholarships (Div. I): 11

NAIA Softball Scholarships: 10

NAIA Basketball Scholarships (Div. II): 6

NAIA Golf Scholarships: 5

NAIA Volleyball Scholarships: 8

NAIA Soccer Scholarships: 12

NAIA Track & Field Scholarships: 12

NAIA Tennis Scholarships: 5

NAIA Cross Country Scholarships: 5

NAIA Wrestling Scholarships: 8

NAIA Swimming & Diving Scholarships: 8

"What does it take to win a college baseball scholarship?" People ask us that all the time. Of course, people have questions about all kinds of college sport scholarships. You have to do a couple things: (1) you have to actively market yourself to college coaches; (2) you have to be willing to ask the tough questions.

One of the big mistakes high school baseball players make when trying to land college baseball scholarships, is that they assume that baseball scholarships are standard, rather than the exception. The actual picture is very different: only a small percentage of college baseball players get scholarships.

DI men's baseball teams, for example, are only allowed 11.7 total NCAA scholarships. Wondering how someone can get .7 scholarships? It means that men's teams can have the equivalent of 11.7 full rides. If tuition costs $10,000 (wouldn't that be nice), the team can have eleven full rides plus another for $7,000.

The NCAA scholarship limits place a cap on the amount of total baseball scholarships teams can offer. But often, the teams don't even have enough money to fund all of them. So you may very well come across a DI team with only 5 scholarships.

What should you do?

The scarcity of college baseball scholarships means that you have to be very strategic in how you go about positioning yourself to get one. You need to have a well constructed baseball recruitment plan. Here are the two things you absolutely must do to get a scholarship:

1. Promote yourself - To win a college baseball scholarship, you have to have a good self-promotion strategy on how you're going to convince a college coach that he should give you one of his few scholarships.

2. Ask the tough questions - Once a coach knows you, you have to ask The Question: if you go to that college will the coach give you a baseball scholarship?

More interested in softball than baseball? Learn about softball scholarships.

There are many rules that govern NCAA scholarships. If you're offered an athletic scholarship, go to the NCAA's website and familiarize yourself with some of the rules, because this is a key part of athletic recruitment. Here are a few key rules:

• Athletic scholarships are not guaranteed for four years. They are awarded one academic year at a time for up to five years. So sometimes a player will get a scholarship one year and not the next. Coaches are usually considerate about keeping injured players on scholarship. However, before signing with a team, you should ask the coach how he deals with injured players who are on scholarship. If you get injured and have to sit out a year, will you lose your sports scholarship?


• Division III schools do not offer athletic scholarships. Non-athletic scholarships, however, are often available on the basis of academic excellence, extracurricular talents, and demonstrated need. Learn other NCAA recruiting guidelines.


• Pell Grants and other governmental scholarship programs may be available in addition to athletic scholarships. Contact individual admissions departments to learn more about such opportunities and whether you can mix athletic scholarships and institutional financial aid.

"How do I get a college soccer scholarship?" We hear that question all the time. It takes two things: (1) you have to actively promote yourself to college coaches; (2) you have to ask them the tough questions.

(Actually, there's a third thing you need. You have to understand the potential dangers of college athletic scholarship.)

One of the big mistakes recruits make when trying to win a soccer scholarship, is that they assume that soccer scholarships are the norm, rather than the exception. In reality, college soccer recruitment is tougher than that: only a small percentage of college soccer players get scholarships. What questions do you need to ask to get a sports scholarships?

DI women's teams, for example, are only allowed 14 total soccer scholarships. Men's teams are allowed 9.9. What on earth is a fraction of a scholarship? It means that men's teams can have the equivalent of 9.9 full rides. If tuition costs $10,000 (wouldn't that be nice), the team can have nine full rides plus another for $9,000.

The NCAA limits the amount of full athletic scholarships teams can have. But often, the teams don't even have enough money to fund all of them. So you may very well come across a DI women's team with only 8 sports scholarships, for example.

What should you do?

The scarcity of soccer scholarships means that you have to be very strategic in how you go about positioning yourself to win one. Let's evaluate the two points from above in more detail:

1. Promote yourself - To win a college soccer scholarship, you need a clear strategy on how you're going to convince a college coach that he should give you one of his precious scholarships.

2. Ask the tough questions - Once a coach knows you, you have to ask The Question: if you go play at that college, will the coach give you a scholarship?

3. Know the NCAA scholarship limits - Find out what sort of resources the coach has to work with.

How do you actually know if you've made a college team? It may seem trivial and obvious, but actually knowing what to do, what questions to ask, and when to ask them, can be tricky. For all the answers, listen to this week's episode of Radio CaptainU.

College Roster Sports & Athletic Scholarships: Transcript

So the question on the docket today is how do you know if you have made a college team? We've gotten a lot of questions about this. How do I actually know if and when college coaches decided that I'm going to be on the roster? So, over the next few minutes we're going to discuss that in a little bit of detail. As you'll see, it's not that complicated. So, again, the question is how do I know if I've made a college team. And the first thing to think about really is what the absolute goal is of recruiting. What are you actually trying to accomplish? And surprisingly, though it may seem simple, there's a lot of confusion about this topic.

At the end of the day, what you're really trying to accomplish in the recruiting process is to be guaranteed a spot on a college roster. It's not just to get onto a team and play in college, which of course is sort of the ultimate goal. It's to be guaranteed a spot on the college team before you show up on campus. You want to know that when you arrive on campus in the fall that you will be on the college team. There are a lot of people, unfortunately, who overlook this and just kind of assume or think or hope that they're going to be on the team, and then they arrive on campus only to find out that they have to go through tryouts of some sort. That can be really frustrating and more often than not is not the successful route.

Unfortunately, at walk-on tryouts, walk-on tryouts are a real roll of the dice. There are typically a lot of players, the coaches don't have much time or patience, and they often only give you a couple hours to show your stuff. By any measure, that's not a very effective or adequate tryout, but that's unfortunately how things go. A couple friends of mine, actually, went that route and were unlucky-- they didn't get to play. They didn't make the team. And the sad thing about that is really they should have and had they known really back then what they should have done, I'm quite certain that they would have made a college team.

So, returning to the key point here, you want to be guaranteed a spot on the college roster when you arrive on campus. You want to know when you decide, when you send in your check to go to school there or sign a national letter of intent or verbally commit, you want to be absolutely convinced that you are going to be given a spot on the roster. So, the question is, of course, how do you know? How do you know if you're going to be guaranteed a spot on the roster? Well, surprisingly, the answer is very simple.

In fact, it's so simple that it can be encapsulated in one word: ASK. Ask the question. Ask college coaches whether you will be on the team if you come to their college. And ask if there's scholarships money available for you. How exactly does this question sound? It can be as simple as, "If I come play for you, will there be soccer scholarships available for me?" Of course, there are some NCAA scholarship limits, so you need to know what the situation is for your specific sport.

Amazingly, all too many kids fail to ask this simple question. And I think I know why. I think it's because college coaches can be a little intimidating, so asking them big questions, even though they may be simple, can be very intimidating, can be a difficult thing. But what you should do is in an email or over the phone, ask the college coach exactly what I've been saying to this point: If I come to school there, will I be guaranteed a spot on the roster? That's all you have to do. If the coach says yes, that's wonderful. If the coach says no, that's not the answer, obviously, you were looking for, but the good thing is that you can now focus on the other colleges, those that actually did say that you will make, you will be guaranteed a spot on the roster.

Of course, there's a third answer, it's kind of the in between answer; "I need more information," is what a coach may say, in which case you need to respond, "what information do you need?" Does he need recommendations from your coaches? Does he need to see you play a little bit more? In all likelihood, it's the latter, so you need to find ways for him to see you play.

The best way to do that, of course, is through a camp during the summer. That gives you a long, extended opportunity to show him what you're really capable of. So, if he says I need to see you play more, ask him, "Where are you planning to be this summer?" Or, if you can't go to a camp, "What tournaments are you planning to be at?" and see if you can make your travel plans, your tournament plans coincide with his. So, to recap, how do you know if you're on the college team, if you're going to make the college team? You ask. You ask the question. Well, that's it for this episode of Radio CaptainU. I hope you found it informative, useful, and helpful. Thanks again, and talk to you soon.

Everyone has heard about NCAA Scholarships (unlike NAIA Scholarships), typically through news reports about Division I basketball players and Division I football players. What doesn't get discussed as often are the rules around NCAA athletic scholarships and realities that most athletes are up against.

Let's pull back the curtain and reveal the myths surrounding NCAA scholarships.

1. The NCAA Clearinghouse - As long as you're doing fairly well in school, you'll probably be eligible. Everyone's heard about Division I basketball players with 0.2 GPAs who are ineligible. The key is to just take good classes in high school and do well in them. If you do that, you'll fly over the Clearinghouse eligibility hurdle.


2. No Division III scholarships - Division III teams aren't allowed to offer NCAA scholarships. This doesn't mean that there aren't other scholarships available. In fact, the average Division III athlete receives more financial aid than the average Division I athlete.


3. NCAA Scholarships are heavily restricted - Division I and Division II teams are only allowed a certain number of NCAA scholarships listed below.


4. Budgets are tight - Just because a team is allowed to have, say 12 scholarships, doesn't mean that the college necessarily has the money to fund them. That team may actually only have 8 scholarships.


5. There are NCAA scholarship limits - There are very few full rides. Even some of the top athletes in the country are on partial scholarships. For instance, colleges coaches get a strange number of soccer scholarships: 9.90. Obviously, someone isn't getting a full ride. Most coaches take the few scholarships they have and divide them among a number of players.

Men's NCAA Scholarships Allowed By Sport in Division I

NCAA Baseball Scholarships: 11.7

NCAA Basketball Scholarships: 13

NCAA Cross Country/Track and Field Scholarships: 12.6

NCAA Football Scholarships: 85

NCAA Golf Scholarships: 4.5

NCAA Gymnastics Scholarships: 6.3

NCAA Ice Hockey Scholarships: 18

NCAA Lacrosse Scholarships: 12.6

NCAA Soccer Scholarships: 9.9

NCAA Swimming and Diving Scholarships: 9.9

NCAA Tennis Scholarships: 4.5

NCAA Water Polo Scholarships: 4.5

NCAA Wrestling Scholarships: 9.9

Women's NCAA Scholarships Allowed By Sport in Division I

NCAA Basketball Scholarships: 15

NCAA Cross Country/Track and Field Scholarships: 18

NCAA Field Hockey Scholarships: 12

NCAA Golf Scholarships: 6

NCAA Gymnastics Scholarships: 12

NCAA Ice Hockey Scholarships: 18

NCAA Lacrosse Scholarships: 12

NCAA Soccer Scholarships: 14

NCAA Softball Scholarships: 12

NCAA Swimming and Diving Scholarships: 14

NCAA Tennis Scholarships: 8

NCAA Volleyball Scholarships: 12

NCAA Water Polo Scholarships: 4.5

Somehow, inexorably, college tuition seems to keep going up at a faster rate than inflation. The Times featured an interesting article this week on that ever-so-uplifting topic. What to do about it? Here are three suggestions:

• Find colleges that really want you. (Of course, make sure that you want them too.) Often they'll be willing to help you with tuition.


• Find out what college sports scholarships are available. Don't be surprised or totally bummed if the answer is "not many."


• Use FastWeb or Scholarships.com to find and apply for various non-athletic scholarships.


• Research federal loan programs such as Stafford Loans and Pell Grants.


• Learn to play the tuba. Okay, that's partly a joke. But find a way to be different. Admissions departments are always looking for people who bring unique skills to the table.

The most important thing, though, is that you wind up at a good-fit school. While all of this might make a scholarship seem wonderful, this is precisely what makes college athletic scholarships dangerous: they can make you lose sight of what's important.

College coaches and sports scholarships are like dragons and gold. They protect them zealously. Try to get one of a coaches' scholarships and they will get prickly.

NCAA scholarships (or, for that matter, NAIA scholarships) are few and far between. There is a lot of demand and very little supply. Each year, coaches have just a few Division I athletic scholarships to hand out.

So how do you get yours without coming on to strong? It all comes down to tactfully asking 1 question -- the most important question surrounding college sports scholarships.

Let's start with what you shouldn't do. Any college coach will tell you that the worst approach is to be pushy about sports scholarships. Don't start asking for a scholarship before a coach has had a good chance to learn about you as a person and as an athlete. This example may seem exaggerated, but it happens all the time:

Dear Coach,

My name is Fred and I would like to get a scholarship to play for your team. Please tell me what I have to do.

Sincerely,

Fred

Yikes. With that out of the way, here's what you should do and, most importantly, the 1 Essential Question For Sports Scholarships:

Before you start asking for money, you have to build trust. You have to contact a coach over an extended period and convince him that you are the right player and person for his team. Once you've established that trust, it's time to ask him The Question, which, in reality, is more of a statement:

"Having learned so much about Southern College over the last eight months since I first emailed you, I feel like it's the ideal place for me as a student and as an athlete. My parents and I are trying to figure out the financial dimension of college, so I wanted to get a sense of whether there will be scholarship money available for me."

Many high school athletes and their parents mistakenly believe that if you can't win an athletic scholarship, you can't play sports in college.

Your focus shouldn't be on the scholarship, but on the experience: is this going to be a good fit in terms of the sports, yes, but also in terms of the academic and social experience. After all, this is college. It shouldn't feel like a prison camp!

The reality is that the majority of college athletes players do not have athletic scholarships. Demand is way too high and supply is way too low. Put simply, there are far more college athletes than there are college scholarships. NCAA scholarship limits make it impossible for college coaches to give every player athletic money.

All that said, it is possible to get college soccer scholarships, baseball scholarships, or any kind of college athletic scholarships. Learn how.

NCAA scholarship limits are a key consideration when looking at Division I colleges. NAIA Scholarships are a different matter. In a given year, a Division I college team is allowed a relatively small number of scholarships. For women's soccer, for example, it's currently fourteen. The coach can divide these scholarships among as many players as she wishes. So fourteen players may get full sports scholarships, or 28 players might get half scholarships. Coaches tend to choose the latter course, dividing scholarships among a number of players.

As mentioned before, a college may offer athletic scholarships, but not fully fund the NCAA/NAIA allowance. So there are Division I women's teams out there that only have, say, eight athletic scholarships. When you factor in the 30-person roster of a college team, the outlook for a full scholarship for the average player is rather bleak.

Many schools don't even offer athletic scholarships. There are no scholarships in the Ivy League or in Division III.

Schools that do offer athletic scholarships are strictly limited by the NCAA to a certain number of scholarships. Whether a school actually funds the full allotment of scholarships is another factor that can work against you.

When it comes to tuition, there are usually payment alternatives. You and your parents just have to be creative and persistent.

Never write off a college for financial reasons without consulting the school's financial aid office. With the financial aid people, discuss academic scholarships, minority scholarships, community service scholarships, federal grants, and loans.

Read more: NCAA Scholarship Limits.

Unless you're one of the top players in the country, don't expect a team to give you a full athletic scholarship. There are even some college players with national team experience who aren't on full rides.

For athletes who are good enough to get a scholarship, partial scholarships are more likely. NCAA scholarship limits restrict college coaches to a certain number of total scholarships. (Or, read about NAIA Scholarships.)

Being a very frugal breed, coaches often divide their scholarships among a number of players. If you are not offered an athletic scholarship, don't give up your college soccer dreams. Nor should you necessarily remove a particular school from the running because you are not offered an athletic scholarship.

Finding colleges, let alone ones where you can play a sport, is a daunting challenge for high school students. The sheer number of colleges is enough to make most 17 year-olds a little jittery. To be successful in recruiting, the athlete has to drive the recruiting process forward. But there are lots of moments in the college recruitment process when a parent's guidance and assistance are invaluable.

As parents, concentrate on what is right for your child. If he's not Harvard material, don't push him in that direction. If she wants to explore a lot of other activities, maybe Division I isn't right after all. Most importantly, don't be overbearing. Instead, think of yourself as teammates trying to win the recruiting game together. The cool thing is that this can be an exciting, collaborative experience.

Here's how parents can have a hugely positive impact on recruiting:

• Help your kid identify 10-ish colleges that seem to have the right combination of sports and academics.


• Sit down together and write a cover letter. Help edit, but don't censor.


• Practice recruiting phone conversations at the kitchen table. Play both roles, so your kid gets to see what it's like to be on the other end of the line.


• Help keep all of the recruiting materials organized and your CaptainU recruiting Logs up to speed.


• Make sure that your kid maintains regular contact with each college coach.


• Address the financial issues — which are a complicated aspect of the college selection process that will stump most kids.


• When your kid reaches an impasse, help him work through it.


• Speak to college coaches only when you absolutely must. Otherwise, let your kid do the talking.

Your most important job is to keep the vibe positive. There are always setbacks in recruiting. How you deal with them will help set the tone for your kid. Emphasize the point that this is an exciting opportunity in which your family can take control of the college recruitment process.

5 tips for making your recruiting decisions:

• Decide which schools you're going to apply to


• Inform college coaches that you've applied to their schools


• Notify coaches when you've been accepted


• Weigh your options; compare and contrast the qualities of each school.


• Consider the different soccer scholarships you've been offered


• Make a commitment - in some cases a verbal commitment and/or a letter of intent

May 1st is Decision Day, when most high school seniors choose which college to attend. Admissions officers can breathe a sigh of relief, because the inevitable financial aid haggling is over -- at least for this year.

Many athletes have long since made their decisions, but if you're still trying to figure it out, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• 1. Based on everything you know, where will you be happiest?


• 2. Where will you get the best education?


• 3. What team do you like most in terms of the coach, other players, and level of competition?


• 4. Is there athletic money available for you -- for example, soccer scholarships?

Balance the answers to those three questions and you'll have the right balance of academics, social life, and athletics. And that's what it's all about.

Making financial arrangements for college is intimidating for high school students. Parents can be a tremendous help by contacting admissions and financial aid departments and working through the financial aspect.

In your conversations with the financial aid people at a college, try to devise a solution to the essential question: if my child really wants to go to your school, what do we need to do to make it happen?

The answer may not come easily, but don?t tear out your hair. Work towards the answer systematically, with the guidance of the admissions department. Keep in mind that if they accept your daughter, it's because they really her to come to their school. This should be pretty encouraging, especially when you're facing gnarly issues like tuition.

A college coach who is committed to getting a recruit will often investigate the recruit's chances of getting institutional financial aid.

If the team was going to offer the recruit a 50% scholarship, but the college will offer a 60% scholarship, it makes sense to go the non-athletic financial aid route.

If a coach doesn't offer me a scholarship, does that mean he doesn't want me on his team?

Year in and out this pernicious myth races through circles of players and parents. Unfortunately, it has been the downfall of many college careers before they even begin.

Don't be deterred if you aren't offered a scholarship. The reality is that between dramatic legal and financial restrictions, college teams are very limited in their ability to pay their players' tuition. Does that mean that you might not get an athletic scholarship? Possibly.

Does it necessarily mean that a coach doesn't want you on his team? No.

How much sway do college coaches have? Can they get you admitted to a college? We run down the myths and realities of college admissions and college sports in our weekly radio show.

Have a question that you want discussed over the air? Send it to info@CaptainU.com

Note: if you have trouble listening with the widget above, give this a try.

Once you've gotten through to your college coaches you have to maintain regular contact with them. Until you've joined a team you cannot stop corresponding with the coach.

If you have the right academic and athletic credentials there is nothing more important to recruiting than regular communication. It sends a clear signal that you're serious about this. It also gives a coach the opportunity to really get to know you.

The best ways to develop your relationships with college coaches are phone calls, e-mails, and letters.

What does it mean to be a "recruit?"

A recruited college athlete is someone who is guaranteed a spot on the team when she arrives on campus as a freshman. Recruited athletes don't have to "try out" to make the team.

Though the goal of recruiting may seem simple, most prospective athletes don't understand what exactly they're trying to accomplish.

The goal is as follows: you want a spot on the roster of a team that's right for you as a student and as an athlete.

Beyond that, everything is gravy. Athletic scholarships included.

There are a number of federal college scholarship funds and programs, including Pell Grants, low interest government loans, and Federal Work Study. To apply for these funds, you have to start with the FAFSA.

The FAFSA is basically a family finances questionnaire. Based on your responses, the Department of Education produces a Student Aid Report which includes your Expected Family Contribution (EFC.)

This report is made available to you and the colleges to which you apply. Schools use your EFC to determine if you should receive federal financial aid, and the form in which it should be—loans, grants, etc. For more information, and to complete the FAFSA online, go the FAFSA official site.