The New York Times is running an excellent series of articles this week on athletic scholarships under the series title "The Scholarship Divide." The installment published yesterday ("Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships") describes the dramatic gap between what athletes and their parents hope to get in the way of athletic scholarships to Division I schools and what is actually available. Here's one of the article's many interesting points: Among men's sports, ice hockey is the best-paying scholarship sport (at, on average, $21,755 per scholarship) and riflery is the worst (at $3,608 per average scholarship). Baseball, however, is second worst ($5,806).
Today's installment in the series ("Recruits Clamor for More from Coaches with Less") examines the competition for athletic scholarships from the standpoint of those who dispense them--the coaches. One of them who is interviewed for the article is Villanova baseball coach Joe Godri. Godri says,
There have been days when you feel like a used-car salesman. I've always been completely honest, but you can't get away from the fact that the process can be crazy. You pump up a kid so much to come to your place, and when he agrees, you say, "O.K., and what I've got for you is 25 percent of your cost to attend here."
And no one believes you, but that's a good Division I baseball scholarship. You have to convince his parents that you're being really fair.
There are a lot of points to be taken away from the series, but one of them is this: When it comes to college scholarships, solid academic skills pay much better than outstanding athletic skills.
