Full Description

Each year, student athletes who aren’t big-time recruits miss out on tens of thousands of dollars of financial aid available. The problem is that students and parents don’t know where the money is, or how to get it.

The Sports Scholarships Insider’s Guide helps parents and students confidently navigate through the twists, obstacles and surprises they will encounter as they seek to find the right college, the right coach and the right offer of athletic financial aid.

Topics covered include:

- Constructing a profile to stand out
- Understanding the recruiting process
- Why prospects and families get hurt
- Negotiating tips and guidelines

Most important, Dion Wheeler debunks the myth that Division III schools do not award financial aid money for athletics. He exposes how these schools get around the rule, and how to get an aid package legally.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: Recruiting and Financial Aid
Chapter 2: Preparing for College and the Future
Chapter 3: Your Education and Athletics
Chapter 4: Constructing the Profile
Chapter 5: The Cover Letter
Chapter 6: The Videotape
Chapter 7: Sending Credentials
Chapter 8: Organize, Organize, Organize
Chapter 9: Critical Documents
Chapter 10: Communications Activities
Chapter 11: The Visit
Chapter 12: Understanding the Recruiting Process
Chapter 13: Why Prospects and Families Get Hurt
Chapter 14: Awarding of Financial Aid
Chapter 15: Negotiating Deadlines
Chapter 16: Financial Aid Limits
Chapter 17: Special Recruiting Considerations for the Three Major Sports
Chapter 18: Solving the Division II Athletic Financial Mystery
Chapter 19: Interdepartmental Communications
Chapter 20: Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate
Chapter 21: The Ultimate Negotiating Weapon
Chapter 22: Contributing to My Future Success
Financial Aid Information Resources
Glossary of Terms
College Athletic Directory

Excerpt

Interdepartmental Communications

NCAA rule 15.4.2 states: “All forms of financial assistance for student athletes shall be handled through the regular college agency or committee that administers financial aid for all students” (NCAA Manual, NCAA, p. 217).

Division III recruiting regulations forbid a coach, an athletic director, or for that matter, any person who has an interest in a particular athletic program or from the athletic department to have communications with the college’s Financial Aid Department concerning financial aid for any prospective student athlete. This restriction is created to prevent athletic department representatives (coaches) from influencing or manipulating acceptance, enrollment, or a financial aid package on behalf of any prospect. A great concept.

Coaches recruit top prospects knowing full well that they can designate to the financial aid director those prospects who should be granted large financial aid packages that are sometimes nearly “full-rides.”

Division III, as well as NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) schools are often very competitive with many Division II and even some Division I programs. It is no accident that some of the nation’s finest athletes can be found at these schools. Large financial aid packages (usually based on need, the prospect’s financial need, or—we need home runs—often play a crucial role in a student athlete’s enrollment in an NCAA Division III or NAIA institution.

So if you are convinced you are a Division I prospect, but you feel you are being overlooked or are being strung along, your best choice for continuing your education and your athletic career, as well as receiving financial aid for your athletic ability, may well be at Division III or NAIA.

Other Benefits for Student Athletes

Student athletes often receive preferential treatment regarding admissions. You may not be quite as competitive academically as other students applying for admission and still be admitted to many Division III or NAIA colleges. Your status as an athletic prospect (we need goals) may cause you to receive a “waiver” of the academic entrance standards (SAT/ACT scores, GPA, class rank, etc.) required of other entering students. Because Division III offers no financial aid based on athletic ability, the NCAA allows Division III institutions to set their own admission standards. If a Division III college determines that a certain needy student (we need stuck dismounts) requires a loosening of the admissions requirements, the magic of professional judgment solves the problem.

Some athletic departments conform a little more closely to the regulations, yet still make their wishes known concerning financial aid awards and waivers for good prospects. They inform the admissions department or a counselor concerning what the financial aid requirements are for enrolling a hot or blue-chip prospect. Admissions passes the information on to financial aid so that it can work the magic of financial aid flexibility based on institutional methodology.

Sometimes a list of desirable prospects mysteriously appears on the desk of the appropriate financial aid officer. Then the assistance packaging formula can, with proper professional judgment flexibility, be fortuitously applied to those prospect’s total financial aid packages. If an institution is found to be significantly violating recruiting rules and regulations, to its credit, the NCAA will deal with the violating institution in a severe manner. But:

The NCAA requests that violations be “self-reported,” to the NCAA. Most often these self-reported violations are minor in nature and are usually followed by perfunctory NCAA action or no action taken.

Are there any Division III institutions that obey the recruiting regulations? Yes. Of course. You can find them—they are consistently at the bottom of their conference’s standings.

Some coaches of these obedient institutions write guest editorials in the NCAA News, a weekly newspaper sent to all NCAA members, pleading that the violations stop, asking that the playing field be level for all Division III institutions. The violations continue.

As you have learned, many Division III programs do violate the spirit, if not the actual bylaws of the NCAA. You are now aware of this tendency to violate. And you also know how to use the strategies I’ve created to exploit the systematic violations of NCAA rules and regulations by Division III institutions.

You learned earlier from a letter from a Division III coach to the NCAA News that financial aid violations are regularly taking place. In the past, it appeared that the NCAA either couldn’t or didn’t want to enforce its own Division III recruiting regulations. Some coaches had accused the NCAA of simply denying that any infractions were occurring. But a long train of complaints and highly publicized violations combined with the potential of new technology has evidently brought the apologists and deniers out of their delusions.

At this writing, the violations continue. But on January 12, 2004, the NCAA Division III President’s Council decided to consider a number of proposals. Some were agreed to and are to be implemented. Three of the proposals the council agreed to have a direct bearing on Division III recruiting and awarding of financial aid to Division III student athletes as reported in the NCAA News.

Also the Division III Management Council recommended to the Division III President’s Council that institutions reporting no Level II (minor infractions) violations at the end of an academic year be required to certify that no violation occurred. This appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to force Division III institutions to improve their self-monitoring and self-reporting obligations to the NCAA.

So there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that violations are very common. The good news is that if you know the system, you can exploit it so that you get what you want and deserve.

Division III’s Pleasant Surprise

As the foregoing has noted, Division III institutions state that they don’t (with the one designated endowment exception) offer financial aid based on athletic ability. You have learned that all divisions (including Division III) have great flexibility in packaging financial aid awards.

You have also learned that many students attending Division III colleges are playing sports and receiving substantial financial aid. Athletic scholarships awarded by Division II and I are usually awarded on a year-to-year basis. The coach is very often the person who decides if your athletic financial aid is renewed.

Usually, the only way you can lose your financial aid when enrolled in a Division III institution is because your academic performance doesn’t meet the institution’s publicly announced standards. That standard is normally related to a student’s grade point average.

Poor performance during an athletic season isn’t supposed to be used as a reason or excuse for reducing the amount of a financial aid package. In fact, you should be able to quit the team and maintain your financial aid package as though you were still on the team. After all, if you weren’t awarded any financial aid because of your athletic ability, how can you lose financial aid because you choose to no longer participate in athletics? Your Division III financial aid had nothing to do with you being a recruited student athlete. Right?

Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate

You too can and should use the very same flexibility that Division III assistance-packaging formulas provide the college’s financial aid director. Deciding to negotiate, but never using that term, and knowing on what basis and what strategies to negotiate with can produce substantial benefits.

Remember, Division III coaches are obliged to tell you, and will always tell you, that the college doesn’t offer athletic scholarships. After the coach has made his obligatory comment concerning no athletic scholarships, listen carefully to the next comments.

If those comments indicate that the college “creates excellent financial aid packages,” or “works very hard to be sure that our athletes get every dollar they’re entitled to,” or “we have lots of financial aid available” or “nobody can give you more financial aid than we can” or “we have a strong recruiting program” or “we’ll match any financial aid package you’re offered” (many financial aid departments will actually request that you send a copy of your financial aid award letter from another school for the purpose of matching it) or similar comments, let the negotiations begin. Each of the foregoing comments have been made to my clients when they talked to Division III coaches that were interested in them.

Start your part of the initial negotiations with something like this: Coach, you’re our first choice, so I’m happy to hear that about financial aid, because the amount of financial aid my son/daughter gets will be crucial in the enrollment decision we make.

Remember, when discussing financial aid with a Division III coach you must avoid using the term “athletic scholarship” or any similar terms. This creates real difficulties for the coach. He/she may feel that it’s not in the program’s best interest to recruit you.

As you negotiate a financial aid package with a coach, recruiter, or financial aid officer, be sure you are prepared for the discussion by reviewing the paragraphs and scripts from chapters 10, 11, 13, and 15. Have your questions ready.

Many parents make the unfortunate mistake of immediately asking, “How much financial aid is my son/daughter going to get?” This is a colossal error because it immediately puts the coach on the defensive. The coach probably has a good idea of what you can contribute to his/her program, but knows nothing about your EFC# or other pertinent factors used in determining your financial aid package.

Ask first about academics, housing, cost per credit hour, instructor-to-pupil ratio, major fields of study available, food plan, percentage of program athletes who graduate in four/five years, etc. Remember, the coach is interested in the quality of his/her program, not about the financial aid concerns of any one prospect. It’s likely that he/she is recruiting between two and four prospects for the position you want.

Most coaches and financial aid departments are in no position to tell you how much financial aid will be forthcoming on the occasion of your first contact with them. They need transcripts and ACT/SAT scores provided to the Admissions Office and the Student Aid Report (SAR) made available to them Financial Aid Office.

Only after these documents are in the hands of both admissions and financial aid counselors can they begin to determine the financial aid implications for you and your parents. Only then do they have the data to create a financial aid package using federal and state government grants and loans (federal methodology) and institutional grants and scholarships (institutional methodology). Be persistent, but be patient.

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