Baseball Scholarships

Baseball is a sport with deep, American tradition and thousands of players compete yearly to play at the collegiate level. Like many other collegiate sports, baseball is very competitive, especially when it comes to landing one of the limited baseball scholarships. Since it is known as an equivalency sport - meaning scholarships can be divided and given to multiple players, unlike football and basketball - each division level has its own number of scholarships. Coaches can more freely divide scholarships from full tuition scholarships into partial tuition scholarship. The different baseball divisions are NCAA D1, NCAA D2, NCAA D3, NAIA, and junior college baseball. Many student-athletes begin their scholarship search in their sophomore year of college and working closely with their coaches to prepare their statistics and play reels for college recruitment.

NCAA Division I baseball recruits only the top players and it is not uncommon for players to be recruited by big league teams before they enter college. Typically, coaches can divide their scholarships into awards for 30 players. Out of the 298 DI baseball programs, each school is allowed to offer a maximum of 11.7 scholarships per team. Roughly 242 colleges are NCAA DII programs and allow 9 full tuition scholarships. Partial tuition is common in DII which gives coaches flexibility in creating their roster. DIII baseball has the most schools participating, with 408 programs. However, DIII programs are prohibited from offering scholarships as a recruiting incentive. Rather, there are general athletic grants and academic scholarships that are offered in order to recruit talent to the campus

The NAIA represents smaller colleges and private universities where, while they may not be as high-profile as the NCAA, still have equally impressive and talented baseball players. With about 214 schools in the nation, 12 full ride scholarships are allowed for each program. These students typically have a strong academic profile and are also strong on the field.

Finally, the NJCAA regulates baseball at the junior college and community college levels. Though junior colleges tend to be overlooked when it comes to sports, NJCAA athletes can be just as impressive as their NCAA and NAIA counterparts. Scholarships are regulated just the same as they are in the NCAA and NJCAA.

Some of the larger colleges have scholarship funds offered by alumni who have played on their college team or funding dedicated to drawing talented baseball players to that college. Coaches may be able to choose whether to divide available funding among a group to form the strongest team, or give the bulk of funding to one particularly talented player that has impressed them on the field.

Check out some examples of baseball scholarships below, regardless of what division or level you intend to play at. For additional information about baseball scholarships and awards based on different criteria, try conducting a free college scholarship search at Scholarships.com.