Basketball Scholarships – How To Get A Basketball Scholarship.
Most college basketball players that are currently on scholarship began their recruitment process early on. We recommend beginning your recruitment by at latest your Sophomore season. This allows you to begin developing relationships with college coaches and allows their to track your progress throughout your high school career.
How To Get A Basketball Scholarship.
The recruitment process is often over complicated. Let’s start things off easy, here are some quick tips on how to maximize your chances of securing a basketball scholarship.
- Start the recruitment process early (Freshman/Sophomore year preferably!)
- Learn how to communicate with college coaches
- Begin collecting and creating highlight videos to share with coaches
- Research the schools you are interested in and create a target list (We recommend 10 ideal schools and around 5 dream schools)
- Keep those grades nice and high!
There are over 1 million basketball players in the USA alone. On average only around 50,000 of those are able to receive basketball scholarships. To increase your chances of being offered a basketball scholarship, begin to implement our quick tips right here.
How Many Basketball Scholarships Are Given Each Year?
Nearly 4,500 players are on a scholarship at the Division I men’s level while there are over 5,000 women basketball players with full rides to play college basketball.
NCAA Division II basketball scholarships tend to be a little more complex as programs are allowed to offer full or partial scholarships to their athletes. The top recruits tend to be offered a full scholarship which would cover all of their costs, whilst others may receive their funding in a variety of different packages, ex. Tuition covered, leaving you to pay room and board.
NAIA schools tend to follow the same guidelines. The better the athlete you are the higher the offer you could receive.
NCAA Basketball Scholarships Limits.
The NCAA requires universities at the NCAA DI level to only offer full scholarships in men’s and women’s basketball. Men’s programs have 13 scholarships while women’s programs have 15 full scholarships. At the NJCAA DI level the total offering includes transportation costs one time per year to and from the college. NCAA DII and NAIA programs may offer full or partial scholarship. While at the NCAA Division III schools are not permitted to offer athletic scholarships.
| Division | Men’s | Women’s | Men’s Avg | Women’s Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCAA DI | 13 | 15 | $16,154 | $17,114 |
| NCAA DII | 10 | 10 | $6,329 | $7,650 |
| NCAA DIII | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| NAIA | 11 | 11 | $7,329 | $7,762 |
| NJCAA | 15 | 15 | $2,479 | $3,002 |
Basketball is a head count sport for both men and women in NCAA D1, which means all scholarships are full-ride scholarships. In all other divisions, basketball is classed as an equivalency sport, which means that coaches can divide the value of the total scholarships allotted to them between as many players as they see fit. Coaches are also able to offer packages at their own discretion of athletic and academic scholarship money.
NCAA Division III schools do not offer athletic scholarships but do offer other forms of financial aid to their student-athletes.
How To Get Recruited For College Basketball.
- Create a target list of schools
- Gather contact information for college coaches. Access information of every college coach in the country right here
- Start communicating with college coaches
- Know the academic requirements to be eligible. You can find these on the NCAA and NAIA eligibility websites
Coaches begin building their recruitment class very early. If you are interested in playing college basketball but you haven’t heard from coaches by September 1st of your junior year, you are behind!
What Are The Academic Requirements Of College Basketball?
-
Graduate high school
- Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center
- Take the required NCAA core courses
- Meet a minimum GPA of 2.3 for division 1 or 2.2 for division 2 schools
- Meet the minimum requirements for SAT/ACT scores (Currently not required as of 03/28/22 but is subject to change)
NOTICE: You must register with the NCAA Clearinghouse to play sports at the NCAA level. You must register with the NAIA Clearinghouse to play sports at the NAIA level.
How To Get Recruited for College Basketball.
We provide our athletes with expose to over 20,000 college coaches and 3000 schools all across the United States. By utilizing the #1 recruitment tool in college sports it allows you to maximize your scholarship opportunities and get early looks from collage recruiters. Here at NextUp, its our job to ensure you are navigating your recruitment process safely, smoothly and stress-free. We do our best to ensure there isn’t anything negative that could possibly have an impact on your college recruitment.
Questions? Please call (708) 946-8476
