Playing sports in college is one level of competition. Landing  sports scholarships is in a whole other league.

Athletic awards are made through colleges and applying for one is like marketing yourself as the lead role for a film.

If you are interested in winning an athletic scholarship go to the NCAA website  and read up on their regulations and policies. You’ll need to apply with NCAA Eligibility Center.

According to the NCAA, athletic scholarships for undergraduate student-athletes at Division I and Division II schools are partially funded through the NCAA membership revenue distribution. These scholarships are awarded directly by each college and not the NCAA. About $1 billion in athletic scholarships are awarded each year and over 126,000 student-athletes receive either a partial or full athletic scholarship. Division III schools offer only academic scholarships and not offer athletic scholarships.

If you enroll in a Division I college before August 1, 2008, and want to participate in athletics or receive an athletics scholarship during your first year, you have to graduate from high school and complete these 14 core courses:  

• 4 years of English
• 2 years of math (algebra 1 or higher)
•  2 years of natural or physical science (including one year of lab science if offered by your high school)
• 1 extra year of English, math or natural or physical science
•  2 years of social science
•  3 years of extra core courses (from any category above, or foreign language, nondoctrinal religion or philosophy)

You’ll also need to earn a minimum required grade-point average in your core courses and get a combined SAT or ACT sum score that matches your core course grade-point average on the test score sliding scale.

You’ll also want to contact the financial aid office of the school you hope to attend. They should have lots of information about available awards.

Make yourself known to coaches. While the actual athletic scholarship is awarded through the college’s financial aid office, it’s the coaches who decide who get the cash. You can go visit the coaches if that’s possible or send them a video of you playing sports, and doing drills, along with a personalized letter.

So you’ve definitely got your work cut out for you if you want to compete for athletic scholarships. But you already like competition, don’t you?

Check out more tips for sport scholarships in our post Athletic Scholarships: Going for Gold.