Full ride scholarships and the elimination of the head count scholarship designation

In college athletics, the terms “head count” and “equivalency” sports refer to different types of scholarships available to athletes. Recently the NCAA has increased roster maximums for nearly all sports essentially eliminating the old “head count” designation and making all sport equivalency sports.

The old head count sport scholarship designation “Head Count” typically included football (at the FBS level), basketball, tennis, women’s volleyball and gymnastics. Under the old definition of head count sports, each athlete who received a scholarship was awarded a full scholarship. This meant the scholarship covered all costs associated with attending college, including tuition, fees, room, and board. Schools were allowed to give out a set number of full scholarships per sport, and every athlete receiving a scholarship in these sports gets the full benefit.

Fast forwarding to the revised NCAA legislation, now has all sports governed by the equivalency model. What exactly does this mean and how does it impact students? In equivalency sports, scholarships can be divided among multiple athletes. This means a school may distribute partial scholarships to several athletes rather than offering a full scholarship to each. The total number of scholarships a team can offer is subject to new limits set by the NCAA or other governing bodies (NAIA, USCAA, NJCAA, etc. if they choose to follow), but those scholarships are not required to be full rides.

So, in summary, a full ride is no longer guaranteed for each athlete in former head count sportsbecause all sports now have increased maximum roster limits. While not all students can receive a full ride, this change will increase/create more opportunities to compete especially in women’s sports. There may be a more important question. Will this change create a larger gap between the haves and the have nots at the NCAA Division I level? Increasing the roster limits doesn’t necessarily mean that NCAA member institutions will have the money to fund accordingly. This could be particularly hurtful the Small and Medium sized D1 institutions and HBCU’s. Please visit check out the rest of my website to learn more about PrepSearch and how I’ve helped over 1700 students attend college using sports since 2007.

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