NCAA Softball: Scholarships and Recruiting
If you thought that NCAA softball was competitive on the field. Try landing a scholarship off the field.
That’s not meant to discourage you. It’s just that you can’t win if you don’t know the rules of the game.
Rule 1) Not all NCAA softball scholarships are full ride like football and basketball. Instead most are classed as “equivalency sports.” What that means, is that coaches share their lump sum between a bunch of different players on the team.
Rule 2) In Division I, a coach can divide 12 scholarships between the players. So it’s more like 25 partial scholarships instead of 12 full ride ones. Division II offers 7.2 full-ride scholarships that can also be divided into partial scholarships. If you are one of those players that can hit the ball out of the park, then there are also full-ride scholarships.
Rule 3) There are 262 NCCA Division I and 253 Division II colleges that offer softball scholarships. That’s a total of 4,965.6 softball grants available in the NCAA.
How to play Hard Ball and get recruited:
Take me out to the Ball Game. Attend a couple of games where you want to attend to make sure the Division is the right level for you.
Join a Travel Team. Don’t just play for your high-school team, but play for a travel team which is usually made up of the top high school players in each state. College coaches are more likely to show up at these games, looking for talent.
Go to Camp. Most of the top colleges and universities (including junior colleges) run their own softball camps over the summer. It’s a great way to learn what will be expected at the college level, and meet and make contacts with the coaches.
Register. If you want to play for NCAA Division I or NCAA Division II softball don’t forget to register and by certified by the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse.
Photo by: Marc Liberts (flickr)
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 3:54 pm and is filed under College softball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
