Are there full scholarships for sports like x-country, golf or tennis?

[Anonymous]

Familar with Tennis. Tennis scholarships (meager as they were) are in flux for 2025–26. Division I schools that opted into the House v. NCAA framework now use roster caps (not sport-by-sport scholarship limits), and women’s tennis is shifting from a headcount sport to an equivalency model with up to 10 scholarships and a 10-player roster cap. Competition is heightened by significant international recruiting (over 60% of D1 women’s tennis players are foreign-born).

[Anonymous]

Look at D1 college tennis rosters. On a team of 12, generally only 1-3 Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who went to Stanford on a full ride XC/track scholarship.

Was that person Grant Fisher, by any chance?

No, but someone in my neighborhood. I knew them since they were in kindergarten with my child, and yes, they were very good. Unfortunately, like many runners, eventually ran into some injuries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the OP has a talented athlete but needs a full scholarship to pay for college, research the service academies. Extremely competitive to get in. Student “pays” for his education by his service to our country.

We have a good friend who ran XC/track at West Point. Gotta be extremely motivated, disciplined and desiring to serve your country.

One of my relatives did this. The team was very tight knit and so was a great support system at the Academy. They got to travel quite a bit with the team as well.

[Anonymous]

Put your assets into a trusted family member's name, quit your job (or work at a chill, poorly paid nonprofit, or just "consult" with no clients), (optional: move to a poor/rural area), send your kid to an Ivy or any D3 school that meets full need, and ta-da!
Enjoy your "scholarship".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put your assets into a trusted family member's name, quit your job (or work at a chill, poorly paid nonprofit, or just "consult" with no clients), (optional: move to a poor/rural area), send your kid to an Ivy or any D3 school that meets full need, and ta-da!
Enjoy your "scholarship".

Shorter version of this:

Step 1: Get good at sport
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit!

[Anonymous]

full scholarships for any sport are rare. very often there is a pool of money per sport so to make a good team, they will have to divide the money among the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:full scholarships for any sport are rare. very often there is a pool of money per sport so to make a good team, they will have to divide the money among the students.

Things have changed a lot this year. Old info or ways thing were done even last year is not relevant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who went to Stanford on a full ride XC/track scholarship.

Was that person Grant Fisher, by any chance?

No, but someone in my neighborhood. I knew them since they were in kindergarten with my child, and yes, they were very good. Unfortunately, like many runners, eventually ran into some injuries.

Sean McGorty was second in the nation in XC and the two mile, and was viewed by many to have a higher upside than his rival from New Jersey. He certainly merited a full ride, but it shows you what kind of talent it takes to earn one in distance running. He and his brother are great kids, and no surprise as mother Vicki was a great athlete at UNC when my brother was an All American and Phi Beta Kappa math student there.

The new P4 economic arrangements make full rides even harder to obtain today. Conferences like the SEC have imposed roster limits. 15 for XC, 35 for track. The track number is a killer. There are years when Arkansas has three 26 foot long jumpers. Today one of them may have k to be cut or spend a gallon year at a JC. A school like powerhouse Arkansas doesn’t have roster spots for some 3:43 1500 guys. You have to be able to score on the track and do well in XC in the conference and otherwise. The increased influx of foreign athletes (they have always been present) makes the scholarship scene even tighter. Foreign runners including some very very good ones from East Africa who require no development, typically need full rides to make it here. I suspect of the top 25 at NC XC’s this year at least 15 if not more will be foreign athletes. And the top 5 likely will be all foreign. Roster spots are now nearly as scarce as scholarships at top schools. The Ivies with no scholarships and no budget eating big time football are a real draw.

Look at Villanova’s coach, the all time record holder for the number of sub 4 miles. Villanova is the best men’s program on the East Coast, and Marcus has stated he needs to look at every recruit today holistically, including the ability to score in cross country, anchor relays, and so on. The number of guys who can run 10k in cross country and anchor the distance medley or 4 x 800 at Penn are scarce. They had two this year. Very little development today. Marcus was a 4:08 miler from Ireland who was developed by Jumbo Elliott to 3:55 in two years. Today you need the ready made 3:55 guy.

There are still scholarship available at a number of schools. But the days of rolling up to power schools with hot high school times expecting a lot of money no longer exist.

[Anonymous]

I totally disagree with the above. Our experience between last year and this year is completely different- schools that offered 60% last year are offering 90% this year. More schools are making offers overall. Schools where no money was available suddenly have funds.

performance is expected as a freshman to keep those funds but money is much different this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:full scholarships for any sport are rare. very often there is a pool of money per sport so to make a good team, they will have to divide the money among the students.

Things have changed a lot this year. Old info or ways thing were done even last year is not relevant

So are you saying it’s easier now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:full scholarships for any sport are rare. very often there is a pool of money per sport so they to make a good team, they will have to divide the money among the students.

Again depends on the sport and size of the roster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I totally disagree with the above. Our experience between last year and this year is completely different- schools that offered 60% last year are offering 90% this year. More schools are making offers overall. Schools where no money was available suddenly have funds.

performance is expected as a freshman to keep those funds but money is much different this year.

Virginia Tech is axing 4:12 high school milers before they can compete. Admittedly the chance to run for Ben Thomas, who coaches Cole Hocker, is arguably worth more than scholarship money. But no scholarships if you can’t make the roster. Like I said the P4 is rapidly changing. You can be good outside the P4 - look at a school like California Baptist - but choices are often are not your typical DCUM option.

As far as performance being expected, yes that was the case in my day as scholarships were year to year. Many schools today offer a 4 year commitment (my school does and so do schools like Notre Dame). This makes scholarships tighter. I can’t imagine what it takes today to obtain a full ride at my school for men. You have to be more than a quality state champ from a competitive state. Remember at a meet like Arcadia there are 30 guys today breaking nine minutes for the two mile. And they have to compete for money against the 8:20 guy from East Africa. Look at Iowa State’s team this year. The prior advantage to the big name P4 schools is that if could hang on and not get injured or burnt out you could bank on being pretty good. That paradigm has changed.

Note schools like BYU are in their own zone. They have scholarships but recruit high level walkons because it is such a compelling school for Mormon runners. Very good coaches who as a result still develop. They won both men’s and women’s titles last year. The women this year recruited the best runner since Mary Decker. She never considered any other school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I totally disagree with the above. Our experience between last year and this year is completely different- schools that offered 60% last year are offering 90% this year. More schools are making offers overall. Schools where no money was available suddenly have funds.

performance is expected as a freshman to keep those funds but money is much different this year.

Virginia Tech is axing 4:12 high school milers before they can compete. Admittedly the chance to run for Ben Thomas, who coaches Cole Hocker, is arguably worth more than scholarship money. But no scholarships if you can’t make the roster. Like I said the P4 is rapidly changing. You can be good outside the P4 - look at a school like California Baptist - but choices are often are not your typical DCUM option.

As far as performance being expected, yes that was the case in my day as scholarships were year to year. Many schools today offer a 4 year commitment (my school does and so do schools like Notre Dame). This makes scholarships tighter. I can’t imagine what it takes today to obtain a full ride at my school for men. You have to be more than a quality state champ from a competitive state. Remember at a meet like Arcadia there are 30 guys today breaking nine minutes for the two mile. And they have to compete for money against the 8:20 guy from East Africa. Look at Iowa State’s team this year. The prior advantage to the big name P4 schools is that if could hang on and not get injured or burnt out you could bank on being pretty good. That paradigm has changed.

Note schools like BYU are in their own zone. They have scholarships but recruit high level walkons because it is such a compelling school for Mormon runners. Very good coaches who as a result still develop. They won both men’s and women’s titles last year. The women this year recruited the best runner since Mary Decker. She never considered any other school.

Nobody cares about xc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I totally disagree with the above. Our experience between last year and this year is completely different- schools that offered 60% last year are offering 90% this year. More schools are making offers overall. Schools where no money was available suddenly have funds.

performance is expected as a freshman to keep those funds but money is much different this year.

Virginia Tech is axing 4:12 high school milers before they can compete. Admittedly the chance to run for Ben Thomas, who coaches Cole Hocker, is arguably worth more than scholarship money. But no scholarships if you can’t make the roster. Like I said the P4 is rapidly changing. You can be good outside the P4 - look at a school like California Baptist - but choices are often are not your typical DCUM option.

As far as performance being expected, yes that was the case in my day as scholarships were year to year. Many schools today offer a 4 year commitment (my school does and so do schools like Notre Dame). This makes scholarships tighter. I can’t imagine what it takes today to obtain a full ride at my school for men. You have to be more than a quality state champ from a competitive state. Remember at a meet like Arcadia there are 30 guys today breaking nine minutes for the two mile. And they have to compete for money against the 8:20 guy from East Africa. Look at Iowa State’s team this year. The prior advantage to the big name P4 schools is that if could hang on and not get injured or burnt out you could bank on being pretty good. That paradigm has changed.

Note schools like BYU are in their own zone. They have scholarships but recruit high level walkons because it is such a compelling school for Mormon runners. Very good coaches who as a result still develop. They won both men’s and women’s titles last year. The women this year recruited the best runner since Mary Decker. She never considered any other school.

Nobody cares about xc

my kid does - just offered a 50% athletic scholarship at a $90k school. Natural runner never spent a nickel on club sports or private coaches, decided to try running in college. We see so many soccer and baseball kids “committing” to horrendous colleges getting 1/8th scholarships after 15 years of club and private coaches - bleh