American Soccer Scholarships

Though many schools spend most of their athletic budgets on men's football and basketball, some offer soccer scholarships to both men and women. American colleges also recruit players overseas, making soccer scholarships extremely competitive and difficult to obtain. According to CollegeSportsScholarships.com, soccer is an "equivalency sport," which means partial scholarships are more common than full rides.

  1. Division I NCAA

    • Men's NCAA Division I soccer teams are allowed 9.9 full scholarships and women's programs are allowed 12. But to make teams more competitive, those scholarships are typically spread out among several players in the form of several partial scholarships. Not all of the 200-plus Division I soccer programs offer partial or full scholarships.

    Division II NCAA

    • As with Division I, there are slightly more women's collegiate soccer teams in Division II than there are men's, though there are more than 150 schools with both men's and women's soccer programs. Division II men's soccer teams are allowed up to nine full scholarships per season, while women's teams can have 9.9. Many Division II teams represent small schools that don't have football programs burdening their athletic budget. These schools may be more likely to offer full scholarships than their Division I counterparts. NCAA Division III schools are not allowed to give athletic scholarships, though many players qualify for financial aid which takes into account their sports contributions.

    National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

    • About 100 NAIA schools have men's and women's soccer teams. The NAIA allows men's and women's teams to offer up to 12 full scholarships per season. This exceeds the limit for Division I and II men's programs and matches the limit for women's Division I teams. However, full soccer scholarships with NAIA programs are also rare; the average player who receives aid in that sport gets about $7,000. The level of play at NAIA schools is comparable to NCAA Division II.