NCAA Lacrosse Scholarships Rules

Lacrosse is one of the most rapidly growing sports in the U.S. Many kids nationwide have given up playing basketball or baseball in order to pick up a lacrosse stick. Because of this, high school lacrosse players have become more prevalent across the U.S. and college lacrosse has become a mainstay in the NCAA landscape.

  1. About College Lacrosse

    • NCAA lacrosse is broken into two scholarship divisions, Division I and Division II. In Division I men, Duke, Virginia and Syracuse have been traditional powers, and C.W. Post and LeMoyne have been traditional powers at the Division II level. In Division I women's lacrosse, Northwestern and Maryland have been the two most dominant programs and at Division II, Adelphi and West Chester have been two of the best programs.

    NCAA Lacrosse Scholarships

    • In men's lacrosse, there are 57 Division I lacrosse universities divided into eight conferences, and in Division II there are 32 such schools split into four conferences. In women's lacrosse there are 83 Division I lacrosse school divided into 12 conferences and 37 Division II teams split into six conferences. Division I men's programs can offer 12.69 scholarships and women can offer 12 scholarships per team. Division II men's teams can provide 10.8 scholarships and women can offer 9.9 scholarships. With rosters of about 20 per school, many lacrosse players get partial scholarships.

    Club Lacrosse

    • Division I and II lacrosse is sanctioned through NCAA on the east coast, but that does not mean that there are not lacrosse programs elsewhere. Club lacrosse teams have sprung up in the Midwest and west for kids who want to play college lacrosse, but can not play Division I or II. Division III programs are also available for boys and girls, however, they do not offer athletic scholarships. Many Division III programs are better caliber lacrosse than the club teams nationwide. Club teams do not offer scholarships for lacrosse either.