A big part of the recruitment process and decision making is often scholarship offers. But should that be a deciding factor? Let’s dive into how they work and try to make sense of the numbers.

Athletic Financial Award

First, let’s look at it from the school’s perspective. Schools can offer prospective student athletes what is known as an Athletic Financial Award (AFA). This award can cover tuition and fees. They CANNOT cover things like living expenses, meal plans, etc. U SPORTS teams can have a roster with a maximum of 110 players (most don’t carry more than 90) however, only 33.6 ‘full scholarships’ are handed out each and every year. That does not mean schools can give out that many to incoming freshmen though. This means each season, they can only give out this many to their entire roster.

Schools can, however ‘break’ these scholarships up and give out partial scholarships. For example, I could give Billy and Tommy each half their tuition and fees, and that would count as one AFA of my teams 33.6. Think of this more as a salary cap and each year the team looks to spend it but stay under the threshold. This is why partial and incentive driven scholarships are very common.

To qualify, you need to not only be good at football, but also in the classroom. In the Canada West conference you need a 65% average (based on grade 12 entrance classes) to qualify for a scholarship. In the Ontario conference, however, you actually need an 80% average to qualify. Now, let’s say you are offered an AFA, accept it, and qualify for it. You need to know that only gets you through the first year. You need to re-qualify for it, academically, each and every year. So in Canada West, you need to successfully complete 18-credit hours (which equates to six half year courses or three full year courses) and have a 2.0 GPA, which is a C average.

Qualifications for scholarships

Another scenario would have you doing six half year courses and getting an F, B, B+, C, B, and an A. This means your GPA is 2.58 so you can qualify for a scholarship, however, you did not successfully complete 18-credit hours so you are now ineligible to compete for the football team next season. So all of this is to remind you that getting a scholarship is not the end of working hard. It is in fact just the beginning of your journey. Additionally, if you’d like to take out a student loan, you will also need to meet the above requirements.

Say you finish your 18-credit hours but you actually attempted 21. You earned an F, C, C, C, C, C+, and a B in those classes. This gives you 18-credit hours complete, so you can compete next year in U SPORTS but it gives you a GPA of 1.93 meaning you will not qualify for your scholarship. You can earn it back the year after by re-establishing a 2.0 GPA and again 18-credit hours completed.

In closing, scholarships are very fluid as head coaches are managing a roster of usually 90 players on it. Some players simply will not qualify for a scholarship academically meaning teams may end up with extra money they can give out. Also, it is common place for a student-athlete’s scholarship amounts to adjust year-to-year. Often players do not get full scholarships in year one but will have a full scholarship in years four and five. As you grow as a student, an athlete, a leader and a teammate, your value unquestionably will rise and teams will reward that.

Do note as well that I have never seen a scholarship ‘taken’ from a student-athlete because of injury. The only situations I have seen scholarships be removed from student-athletes is when they do not qualify academically or when they have broken team or league rules (doping, missing team functions, etc).