Athletic scholarship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on their ability to play in a sport. They are common in the United States, but in many countries they are rare or non-existent.
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[edit] United States
In the United States athletic scholarships are largely regulated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which sets minimum standards for both the individuals awarded the scholarships (in terms of GPAs and standardized test scores for recipients) and for the institutions granting them (in terms of the proportion of scholarship recipients who must ultimately earn degrees).
In 1973, the NCAA split its membership into three divisions: Division I, Division II, and Division III. Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football is further divided into the Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) and Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA); the two differ in their postseason system (bowl games in the Bowl Subdivision and a 16-team knockout playoff in the Championship Subdivision) and the number of football scholarships they can offer.
Institutions that engage in misconduct may be stripped of the ability to award a certain number of athletic scholarships. The ultimate penalty, the suspension of an entire athletic program for a set period of time, is popularly known as "The Death Penalty"; it has only been levied twice in history.
[edit] Other countries
In other countries athletic scholarships are far more restricted.
[edit] Canada
In Canada, for instance, Canadian Interuniversity Sport rules ban all entrance scholarships for athleticism, and athletes can only get funding once they enter their second year of school. Even then the amount is based on the total team due to Ceiling Rules (Not one student can receive the bulk of the award, it has to be shared among his team members equally). It is not capped as previously mentioned. Ontario, which is home to many of Canada's largest universities, has even stricter rules. Less than a quarter of CIS athletes receive scholarships for their abilities. A major consequence of this is that many of Canada's top young athletes go to university in the United States, where they can get much larger scholarships. This also may be one reason that two schools in the Vancouver area have attempted to petition to enter the NCAA in recent years. Simon Fraser University unsuccessfully tried to enter the NCAA in 2000, while the University of British Columbia is currently seeking NCAA membership.
[edit] United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom entrance scholarships for sport are illegal and therefore non-existent. However sporting ability may be taken into account in admission for places on degrees in subjects such as sports science, and at the discretion of admissions staff sporting achievements may be taken into account on choosing candidates based on their ability to make an all round contribution to the institution in the same way as achievements in any other non-academic area. Students who are elite standard sports competitors are eligible for financial support from bodies such as UK Sport on the same basis as anyone else. Some British students take scholarships at American universities, a trend which is particularly noticeable in golf. Many top British golfers are graduates of American universities including Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald and Paul Casey.
[edit] Arguments for and against sports scholarships
Critics have labelled the term to be an oxymoron, stating that physically talented persons selected for their ability to run, jump, throw, kick or hit a ball are retained to staff a school's teams, and paid for their services while being classified as "scholars". Some critics of the athletic scholarship system have coined the term "jockship" to describe the awards. The term is based on the word jock, a mildly derisive American slang term that plays on the stereotype of the "dumb athlete".
Such scholarships have been characterised as salaries paid to the persons selected in order to induce them to perform for the hiring school. (The characterization of the salary as a "scholarship" is deemed necessary because, generally, at most American colleges, participation as a member of the school's athletic teams is a privilege accorded exclusively to enrolled students, and team members are, in theory, amateurs.)
Supporters point out that many students would be unable to receive a higher education at all, but for the availability of athletic scholarships. Whereas academic scholarships are predominantly awarded to students coming from middle and upper class backgrounds (who could afford a better education in the first place), athletic scholarships tend to go to poorer, less privileged students, more often from minority backgrounds.
