NCAA Rules on Football Scholarships

A football coach in the National Collegiate Athletic Association can't entice high school students to play for his team by offering cars, cash or clothes. The NCAA allows institutions to award only full scholarships that don't exceed the school's costs for room and board, tuition and required text books for classes. A football scholarship also comes attached with rules and requirements.

  1. Academic Requirements

    • A student must meet academic eligibility requirements in high school before he can receive a Division I college football scholarship. The student needs to complete 16 core courses and meet minimum achievement levels in grades and standardized-test scores on a sliding scale, according to the NCAA. For example, if a student earns a 3.0 grade-point average in core courses, he must get a 620 or above on the SAT or a 52 on the ACT. If the student's test scores increase, then the GPA can decrease and vice versa.

    Limit Per Team

    • The NCAA caps the number of scholarships a school is allowed to award. A Division I team can give up to 85 scholarships; a team in the Football Championship Subdivision---formerly known as the I-AA level---can give up to 63 scholarships; and a Division II team can give up to 36. Division III schools do not award athletic scholarships.

    Length

    • A student isn't set for the next four years when he accepts a scholarship. A coach awards a scholarship for one academic year, and the school must renew the scholarship by July 1 for the next academic year, according to the NCAA. A scholarship can be terminated for any reason. Common reasons for termination include the player breaking a team rule, getting injured or playing poorly.