Football Scholarships in the USA

Playing college football is one way for a prospective student to get his college education paid for. There are three divisions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football, an in two of them either full or partial scholarships are awarded. Junior colleges also offer scholarships for their programs. These scholarships may pay for a student's tuition, books, and college fees.

  1. NCAA Division I

    • NCAA Division I football includes 236 schools. Many of these schools offer 85 scholarships per team. The scholarships are offered to elite athletes who are among the best throughout the country in high school football. These athletes perform in state and national all-star games and are recruited by the college coaches and scouts.

    NCAA Division II

    • There are 156 NCAA Division II teams that don't have the revenue streams that Division I have, lacking big television contracts or stadiums that hold 100,000 fans. Without these revenues, Division II schools rely on winning and filling the small stadiums they have to turn football into a small revenue stream. In addition, the Division II recruiting process occurs after the Division I schools have made their offers. Division II teams offer 36 scholarships per team as the the competition to receive a Division II scholarship is a real challenge for the athlete to grab one of the limited roster spots.

    NAIA Scholarships

    • The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is not associated with the NCAA and is not as competitive for athletes as many NAIA schools participate in smaller, academically balanced conferences. With NAIA schools having smaller budgets and focusing on education, they don't offer full scholarships but rather partial scholarships. The school administrators and coaches promote playing time and a chance to compete on a championship level--as there are less NAIA schools to compete and a better chance for playing time compared to the bigger NCAA programs.