The Rose Bowl. The Orange Bowl. The Gator Bowl. These are some of the biggest college games in football. What does it take to get to play in these tournaments? Top high school football stars will likely be marketed by their high school coaches to the appropriate recruiter and handpicked by the most maverick collegiate football coaches in leading programs across the country.
Media Visibility
The football elite benefit from the sport's high visibility. Football on the college level is perhaps the most marketed of all athletic programs. So recruiting the cream of the crop in high school players is about following the news.
The only players who will qualify for football scholarships are those who can make the cut for the NCAA Division I and II schools. Division III and under may offer competitive football even for the above average, but you will likely be admitted via attractive academic or need-based scholarships and grants.
Elite Football: NCAA Division I
There are 236 Division I colleges and universities, among them the big names like Princeton, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Michigan State, Florida State, Baylor, Kansas State, and UCLA. Programs like these are nearly untouchable except to the very elite football players.
NCAA Division II
The competition for Division II scholarships is fiercest. This is where competitive recruiting really plays a part. D2 schools need the best football players they can get their hands on in order to build their programs and win games. Without winning teams, scholarship money begins to hang in the balance. So if you may not be able to make it into a D1 school, there are 156 competitive D2 programs shopping for the best their money can buy.
Players looking at D2 football programs should consider that many of the best teams win because of depth, not because they have a superstar on their field. The biggest controversy among the Division is the ongoing debate over scholarship reductions, not in dollar amount but in the number that any D2 school is qualified to offer. Currently the maximum is 36, which the top teams can easily manage. Middle of the road programs are unable to fund that many new scholarships and focus efforts instead on making every player on their team a worthy choice for their stressed-out athletic budgets. Good examples are Humboldt State University football program and the Morehouse College football program.
Ivy League
If you're looking for Ivy League football - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania - don't bank on a football scholarship. Ivy league schools have Division I football programs, but athletic scholarships are not part of their scene. These schools are academically focused before anything else. Harvard and Yale offer big money in academic scholarships, so they don't have to mess with the athletic bucks. Not only are these student-athletes talented on the field, but they are brains when it comes to the books, as well.
NAIA Football Scholarships
An alternative to the NCAA schools is the NAIA, or the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Where the NCAA is too unwieldy and competitive, like football, the NAIA offers options and more equality among athletes. Colleges and universities that participate are smaller, more academically balanced, and yet nearly all of them offer athletic scholarships of some sort. Don’t expect full scholarships, many students are awarded partial athletic scholarships combined with academic and need-based scholarships. Student-athletes in the NAIA may get more playing time, more opportunities to compete on a championship level, and certainly more access to scholarship money.
Top ranked NAIA football programs:
•Carroll College, with only about 1500 students in all, leads the NAIA in football, volleyball and basketball championship titles. The Student Athletic Association generates big donor support for their student-athlete scholarships.
•Georgetown, St. Xavier University, Sioux Falls football, and Morningside College football.
Why Div III Football is a Good Bet
There are 235 Division III football programs in the country. These schools work vigorously to draw the best football players they can, considering that they cannot offer traditional athletic scholarships. So how do they manage to attract talented football players?
Smaller colleges have developed well-honed strategies for netting the biggest fish available to them in college football recruiting. The secret to getting money to play football at a small school: academic and need-based scholarship money.