Fully Funded Tennis Scholarship Programs vs Partially Funded
 

How can you tell if a program is fully funded? In other words how can you tell if they can support all 8 spots for a women's team?

You need to ask the coach or AD office.

There is no chart or list that I am aware of.

Safe to assume, I would say, that all the Majors are fully-funded. Prime candidates........not certainties just prime candidates........to be partially funded are mid-Major and below private schools

EDIT: Even partially funded schools usually support 8 spots......just not with full scholys.

All men's D1 and DII tennis programs are partially funded. Women's programs are fully funded, although a school can choose to partially fund it. The question I believe that is being asked here is how do you tell if a tennis program has all the scholarships available funded?

Correct. Right now all I can do is look at rosters and see how many Freshman are in the lineup. Since my daughter is a freshman in HS, those spots would presumably free up when she graduates. For some schools, the roster does not list 8 spots for the teams I have been looking at - SOCON, Atlantic Sun, Big South. That makes me think that they are not fully funded or they really cannot fill up the team, which is hard to believe.

I would say it differently.

I would say that men's programs are limited by NCAA rule to the equivalent of 4.5 scholarships that may be allocated to as many as 8? 10? players.....and that most D1 and D2 men's programs are fully funded up to what the NCAA allows.

As stated previously, women's programs are limited by NCAA rule to 8 scholarships to no more than 8 women.....and several D1 and D2 programs are partially funded, particularly at the mid-malor private level and down.

believe it. many schools cant GIVE away all of their scholarships to women. the year after my alma mater's women's team won the southland conference, the coach had two scholarships he couldnt give away. he had only 6 girls on the team with two injuries and played much of the season with only 4 girls. you're lucky to have a daughter that could potentially play college tennis because she will almost be guaranteed a scholarship somewhere. it is much MUCH more difficult for a guy to get funded.

In my little slice of experience......I am not saying because it is my experience it is a universal truth......partially funded women's programs typically support partial scholys for eight women rather than full scholys for some of the top eight and nothing for the rest of the top eight.

If a school does not fill 8 roster spots, there could be a variety of reasons.

1. The school is undesirable for academic, athletic, location, or climate reasons

2. There was an unexpected transfer out, or defection, or failure to academically qualify

3. The coach is purposefully "banking" a scholy to save for the next incoming class.

Even if a school is partially funded and is offering each girl a fraction of a full athletic scholy, they often find ways to make up the difference by using academic money to make up the difference. To find out how all this stuff works for each school, it is necessary to talk to the coach or AD office, I think

Ok, I think I understand that. So since they do not have enough money to fund all 8, they do not care that a partial counts as a full scholarship according to NCAA.

The guy that runs the academy where she drills has said that there are many schools who leave women's scholarships on the table every year. I am encouraged by that, but for us, I don't think it changes the game plan. She still wants to work to be the best she can be by the time she is recruitable. We live in a competitively deep state and I want to assume many of her peers will be competing for the same schools. I want her to have the broadest scope of options within a reasonable distance from where we live now. Ultimately it is up to her though - if she wants to go to school far away, that is her decision to make.

Let's say at College X, a full scholy would cost $40,000 for tuition, room and board, etc. AD determines that the women's tennis program will be funded up to $240,000 for scholys. Coach has the following options:

1. Offer 3/4 scholys to eight girls, or $30,000 each....and try to make up the remaining $10,000 for each girl through available academic money. (In my experience this is the way it is done most often)

2. Offer full scholys to six girls and nothing for the next two best girls.

3. Offer fractions other than those suggested above that equate to being 3/4 funded.

EDIT: In no case may more than eight girls receive any scholarship money

Misterbill,
thanks for all the great information concerning womens college tennis.

It would of been nice if you were posting here when my daughter went through the recruiting process.

Just to clarify for readers what you meant: No more than 8 girls may receive athletic scholarship money.

Correct.

And thanks, Tennishacker. It is hoped that the recruiting process for your daughter ended up with the results she desired!

What star recruit could garner a partial or full scholarship? Any 2 stars or 3 stars getting rides to D-1 programs?

For further clarification if a womens team is fully funded (8 full scholarships)the player either receives a full ride tennis scholarship or no athletic scholarship. In some cases this is why a coach with a fully funded program banks a scholarship not wanting to risk giving out a full scholarship to a player who may or may not be able to win at the coaches desired level.

All Men's programs in DI, DII and NAIA are considered partially funded and the coach may give our full or partial tennis scholarships in whatever amount he/she sees fit.Partials for men are the norm, tuition, books and fees or roughly 50%.

NOTE: Some women's programs may declare partial funding (less than 8 scholarships) then the coach may give out tennis scholarships in any amount they want.

I've found two things helpful. Dig though the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA scholarship regulations to find out more. Also, ask the coach how they are funded and what latitude they have in distributing their scholarships. I found the latter to be very helpful as nuance can occur from division to division, school to school and conference to conference, etc.

For girls I would say that full scholarships for 2 and 3 stars are very likely. Probably not at the big time conferences, although I'm sure there are execptions. For boys 50% tennis scholarships is the norm. Again there are exceptions but full tennis scholarships for boys are rare. For boys looking for max tennis scholarship money look at the smaller D1 schools, NAIA and NJCAA.

Another way to say this is that women's tennis is a "head-count" sport and men's tennis is an "equivalency" sport.

Head count sports are allocated X full scholarships that may be given to no more than X athletes. Football and volleyball are head count sports. In D1 there are currently 85 full scholys available in football and 12 in volleyball for fully-funded programs.

Equivalency sports are allocated the equivalent of X full scholarships that may be divided up and given to no more than a set number of athletes, at the discretion of the coach. Baseball is an equivalency sport. In D1 baseball there is the equivalent of 11.7 full scholys that may be allocated to no more than 27 players.

If men's tennis is fully-funded, there is the equivalent of 4.5 full scholys that may be awarded. If men's tennis is partially funded, there is the equivalent of fewer than 4.5 that may be awarded.

If women's tennis is fully-funded, there are 8 full scholarships that may be awarded to no more than 8 players. If women's tennis is partially funded, then no more than 8 players may receive scholarships in amounts that reflect the proportion of partial funding.

The confusion here is that you are the only one I have ever encountered who uses the terminology in this way. "Partial scholarships" and "partially funded" are two different things. If you ask an NCAA men's Division I tennis coach if his program is fully funded, he will answer yes if he has been given 4.5 scholarships to allocate, and no if he has been given less than 4.5, in which case he would also say that he is only partially funded.

^^^I learned the terminology from Billy Pate and numerous other college coaches and reading the rules. Maybe you could look over the rules and point out my misinterpretation. Not a challenge, I welcome the learning opportunity.

Merry Chistmas.

The NCAA prescribes the maximum number or equivalency of scholarships for each sport.

If a school's athletic department offers the maximum allowed by the NCAA, the sport is considered fully-funded.......meaning fully-funded compared to the maximum allowed by the rules. If it offers less than the maximum, the sport is considered partially funded compared to the maximum allowed by the rules.

If this is confusing, we could say a school offers the maximum amount or less than the maximum amount, I suppose.

Anyway, whatever the terminology, I hope readers understand the substance of the distinction by now.

EDIT: In equivalency sports, such as men's tennis, a fully-funded program may.....and always does...... offer partial scholarships. If they didn't, men's tennis teams would have 4 players on the roster and the baseball team would have 11. So it is true that fully-funded equivalency sports offer partial (less than full) scholarships to players. Fully-funded "head-count" sports do not offer partial scholarships to players. If a "head-count" sport offers partial scholarships that means it is not fully-funded.

Here's a random link: (scroll down below the chart)

http://www.berecruited.com/resources...ship-allotment