I've spoken with a lot of athletes from various sports who have considered or have went to a NAIA college and they don't think they are worth the trouble. School's tuition costs a fortune and the scholorships that are handed out aren't enough to cover an athleteâs tuition for more than a year or so.
Now, I'm not that familiar with how the NAIA system works, but for those current NAIA athletes, parents, etc. is it really worth even taking into consideration coming out of high school?
If the only way you are going to go to college is through sports then I think there is sense of caution about what pays for tuition and what doesn't. The kids know this when they sign that scholarship. If they don't know, then it is there fault for not asking. If the parents will cough up the extra money then it is worth it.
I enjoy watching NAIA games. I've seen alot of guys that belong in the NCAA IMO. Like EJ Underwood that played at Pikeville, he transfered from Ohio State. He and that other guy were way to good for the NAIA.
vundy33 Wrote:I enjoy watching NAIA games. I've seen alot of guys that belong in the NCAA IMO. Like EJ Underwood that played at Pikeville, he transfered from Ohio State. He and that other guy were way to good for the NAIA.
a ton of those that go to NAIA is inelgible because of academics. yes they can play ball but dont or cant do the school work.
I had the opportunity to play NAIA basketball at a couple schools, but the "scholarship" offers were more dependent on what I could earn in terms of academic scholarships more than anything. Had I attended either of the two schools I would have been paying between 1500-3000 dollars a year because I didn't qualify for any other type of financial aid. Typically a NAIA "athletic scholarship" means how much money you qualify for through financial aid and, coupled with assistance to obtain academic scholarships, and the university providing ammenities such as books or a meal plan. Meanwhile, I had a full academic scholarship to EKU as long as I maintained a 3.0 GPA, that coupled with the money I got from KEES (sp?), covered my tuition and my housing roughly every year.
I loved playing basketball, but it was pretty obvious NAIA would be the end of the road in terms of my playing career. So it came down to paying a little bit of money, attend a small school, have most of my free time occupied by basketball. Or, attend a larger university with alot of my friends, have school basically payed for save books and food, and have my free time for whatever I wanted. The choice was easy for me.
I was fortunate to have the option of a scholarship to EKU.. for people who need the help financially NAIA is a great option and provides athletes a chance to get a phenominal education at a discounted price. There is alot of misinformation, especially on the side of parents and athletes, as to what an athletic scholarship entails. Once you get away from Division 1, true "Full rides" are basically non-existent... and even at the D-1 level they are not as prevalant as people think. UK Baseball is one of the better programs in the country but only a moderate fraction of their players are truly on "full rides".
It's only not worth the trouble if 1. They are getting the playing time they feel they should or 2. Aren't winning. And by that I mean, those that go and leave. If you talk to anyone that has played an entire 4 years in college, in any sport, they will tell you it is worth it. While it is more expensive then most public universities, there are a lot of scholarships both academic and athletically made available for student athletes. Pikeville has enough money for 24 full scholarships. So that money is broken up and divided among the scholarship players. A lot of schools have institutional money that in some places are unlimited. Places like Cumberland and Gtown have basically unlimited institutional money, which allows them to bring in over 50 kids a year. Institutional money is basically just a reduction of your bill, not necessarily money that goes into the pockets of the kids. Institutional money is given based on academics and keeping a certain GPA while in school. I know that at Pikeville, if you are from around the surrounding counties and have a 3.5 GPA in high school and a 23 or 25 (not sure ) on your ACT , then you can get your tuition paid for. Like I said it really just depends on what NAIA schools you are talking about and what scholarships and institutional money they have available. But if you want to keep playing and that is your option, then it is DEFINITELY worth considering. Some people need the structure of athletics and the desire to keep playing to keep them in school.
I played soccer for two NAIA schools for a total of 3 years would have finished out my carrer but my life then caught up to me and gave it up for my son. With that said it was absolutly the greatest expereience I have ever had. I love sports as that has already been made evident. It helped me pay for some great years of schooling and has hurt me now that I had to give it up but that is ok. To be honest I really messed up when leaving Cumberlands and came back home however it was in the best inerest of me. Cumberland really helped me build a great financial package that payed for more of my school than any state school was offering and yes I was avaliable to recieve academic money and Financial Aid. However, if a school really wants you they are willing to dish out what every they need to so that you will come to that school. In my case I was only paying 750 a semester. Then i began slacking in school due to drinking to much and I dont care to be honest I messed up but thats ok because I am about to graduate. So I came home where PIKEVILLE OFFERED key word OFFERED me a deal I could not refuse but to my demise after my first semester they took all that away from me for the most part. First semester was basically on a full ride now they are forcing me to pay 5 K to finish my last 3 semesters and to be honest I am ****ed.
I have found that many athletes at Pikeville and just plain students are being done the same way. So yet again like some have mentoned it is indeed where you want to go to and what resources they have. Also are they honest. Pikeville not so much...they were in the past but not so much now...
OldTymer Wrote:Places like Cumberland and Gtown have basically unlimited institutional money, which allows them to bring in over 50 kids a year. Institutional money is basically just a reduction of your bill, not necessarily money that goes into the pockets of the kids. Institutional money is given based on academics and keeping a certain GPA while in school. I
Cumberland was my best choice financially had I chose to play basketball.
As I said before I am all for giving students who may not have the money or academic profile a chance to get a top notch education at a reduced rate.
EKUAlum05 Wrote:I had the opportunity to play NAIA basketball at a couple schools, but the "scholarship" offers were more dependent on what I could earn in terms of academic scholarships more than anything. Had I attended either of the two schools I would have been paying between 1500-3000 dollars a year because I didn't qualify for any other type of financial aid. Typically a NAIA "athletic scholarship" means how much money you qualify for through financial aid and, coupled with assistance to obtain academic scholarships, and the university providing ammenities such as books or a meal plan. Meanwhile, I had a full academic scholarship to EKU as long as I maintained a 3.0 GPA, that coupled with the money I got from KEES (sp?), covered my tuition and my housing roughly every year.
I loved playing basketball, but it was pretty obvious NAIA would be the end of the road in terms of my playing career. So it came down to paying a little bit of money, attend a small school, have most of my free time occupied by basketball. Or, attend a larger university with alot of my friends, have school basically payed for save books and food, and have my free time for whatever I wanted. The choice was easy for me.
I was fortunate to have the option of a scholarship to EKU.. for people who need the help financially NAIA is a great option and provides athletes a chance to get a phenominal education at a discounted price. There is alot of misinformation, especially on the side of parents and athletes, as to what an athletic scholarship entails. Once you get away from Division 1, true "Full rides" are basically non-existent... and even at the D-1 level they are not as prevalant as people think. UK Baseball is one of the better programs in the country but only a moderate fraction of their players are truly on "full rides".
I will disagree with you on that 100%. UK does not offer full athletic rides in baseball to anybody.. My oldest son was in John Cohen's 2nd recruiting class, so I am very familiar with how UK spreads their money around. D1 colleges only have 11.7 scholarships to divide among a roster of 40+ players. And as a result, they may only have 2 or 3 full scholarships available depending on who graduated the previous year, again to divide among 8-10 incoming freshmen.
As an example, Colin Cowgill was in Cohen's first recruiting class. He was Kentucky's reigning Mr. Baseball, and everyone knows how Cowgill eventually performed during his UK career as well. Cohen told me in my personal parent meeting, that he had signed Cowgill to a staggering total of $500.00 per year. The rest of his tuition was paid for by KEES money, adademic scholarship, or whatever other academic insintives the university could offer. Also he was an in state student and a Lexington native that was able to take advantage of the lower in state tuition rate, plus not be reliant on room and board costs. He was able to live at home. UK is no different than any other university in that with that limited number of scholly's to offer, non of them can afford to give one player a scholly based 100% on true athletic money. It's really no different than NAIA, or DII. What money you receive is coupled with whatever other options that university may have available. BUT, whatever offer you recieve is all based first on what your personal FASFA report entails. They first see what your personal finances are, and then package things togther based on that.
I can back this up a little further. While attending a University of Tennnesee trip, Delmonico also told me that he had never in his entire coaching career, ever offered any player a full athletic ride.
EKUAlum05 Wrote:I had the opportunity to play NAIA basketball at a couple schools, but the "scholarship" offers were more dependent on what I could earn in terms of academic scholarships more than anything. Had I attended either of the two schools I would have been paying between 1500-3000 dollars a year because I didn't qualify for any other type of financial aid. Typically a NAIA "athletic scholarship" means how much money you qualify for through financial aid and, coupled with assistance to obtain academic scholarships, and the university providing ammenities such as books or a meal plan. Meanwhile, I had a full academic scholarship to EKU as long as I maintained a 3.0 GPA, that coupled with the money I got from KEES (sp?), covered my tuition and my housing roughly every year.
I loved playing basketball, but it was pretty obvious NAIA would be the end of the road in terms of my playing career. So it came down to paying a little bit of money, attend a small school, have most of my free time occupied by basketball. Or, attend a larger university with alot of my friends, have school basically payed for save books and food, and have my free time for whatever I wanted. The choice was easy for me.
I was fortunate to have the option of a scholarship to EKU.. for people who need the help financially NAIA is a great option and provides athletes a chance to get a phenominal education at a discounted price. There is alot of misinformation, especially on the side of parents and athletes, as to what an athletic scholarship entails. Once you get away from Division 1, true "Full rides" are basically non-existent... and even at the D-1 level they are not as prevalant as people think. UK Baseball is one of the better programs in the country but only a moderate fraction of their players are truly on "full rides".
That is a point that should be brought out to any person thinking about playing college sports at any level. If you do in fact choose to play, you have a very limited amount of free time. For the next 4 years, you are basicly enslaved to the sport. However, honestly I can personally only give baseball as an example. For 12 months a year, 52 weeks a year, 7 days a week, 24hours a day, it is your life. At least it has been for mine.
If your not willing to make that sacrifice, then I suggest that it not be considered.
BlackcatAlum Wrote:I've spoken with a lot of athletes from various sports who have considered or have went to a NAIA college and they don't think they are worth the trouble. School's tuition costs a fortune and the scholorships that are handed out aren't enough to cover an athlete’s tuition for more than a year or so.
Now, I'm not that familiar with how the NAIA system works, but for those current NAIA athletes, parents, etc. is it really worth even taking into consideration coming out of high school?
That can only be answered by the participant. What is worth while to one person, may not be defined in the same manner by another.
Love of whatever you are doing is the true and deciding answer to that.
My above post gives reasons as to what someone's personal choice may or may not be. What someone's "True Love" is, can be answered very quickly.
Mr.Kimball Wrote:That is a point that should be brought out to any person thinking about playing college sports at any level. If you do in fact choose to play, you have a very limited amount of free time. For the next 4 years, you are basicly enslaved to the sport. However, honestly I can personally only give baseball as an example. For 12 months a year, 52 weeks a year, 7 days a week, 24hours a day, it is your life. At least it has been for mine.
If your not willing to make that sacrifice, then I suggest that it not be considered.
As an RA at Pikeville I can attest to this, I see these guys come up here after practice, rest for maybe 15 minutes, go straight to study hall, then they're done around 9:30, maybe hang out for 1-2 hours, then hit the bed. You do have to commit a lot to play a college sport.
If you are comitted to play at the next level â you will do what it takes. You will take care of business on the field, in the classroom, and off the field. There are many âoptionsâ for paying for college and most student athletes do NOT get a full ride at any level NCAA or NAIA. If you have a true desire to participate there are oppertunities and ways of funding school. But you have to take care of business or youâll waste your time and money.
BlackcatAlum Wrote:I've spoken with a lot of athletes from various sports who have considered or have went to a NAIA college and they don't think they are worth the trouble.
A college education is worth the trouble- if you value it. Someone going to play sports in college is a
Student athlete. Learn live long skill/employablity with good memories of your playing days. Woth it? Every penny!
PC_You_Know Wrote:As an RA at Pikeville I can attest to this, I see these guys come up here after practice, rest for maybe 15 minutes, go straight to study hall, then they're done around 9:30, maybe hang out for 1-2 hours, then hit the bed. You do have to commit a lot to play a college sport.
haha isnt this the truth at Cumberland, we had 6 am weight sessions, breakfeast, class, lunch, class, work study, by then it was normally around 5 pm, go rest for about 30 min, get changed for training session, go practice, then dinner if the mess hall was still open if not then either A) went back to the dorm room and ate then a shower or B) went out to eat with a few of the guys, then took a shower, then it was off to the books, by the time I was done doing that it was 12 or 1 am, by that time I was either A) ready for bed, B) needed to go grocery shopping, C) doing laundry, or D) maybe had sometime to play a few games of Halo.. then the same thing the next day...However, Thursday nights took a night off of studying and we all went to Tonic in Knoxville lol
College athletics are A JOB.
Its worth it if you want to play.
nky Wrote:A college education is worth the trouble- if you value it. Someone going to play sports in college is a Student athlete. Learn live long skill/employablity with good memories of your playing days. Woth it? Every penny!
:Thumbs:
I am one of the lucky ones. They say that only 10% of high school students play college sports and I would hate to see the number that actually get full rides, that number goes down considerably I am sure. My husband and I both received full scholarships, yes they were coupled with financial aid, grants, and academic money but my parents never paid a dime for me to go to school at one of the most expensive schools in the state. I received a full ride from a then NAIA school. (Transy has since gone NCAA D-3). When I started school there were only 3 full scholarships for a 15 woman roster. Then title 9 kicked in and we got a few more so probably there were 3 of us that got full rides and everyone else got partial. I would highly recommend playing a college sport at any level because of the discipline that is needed to maintain such a full schedule is very much needed when you are thrown into the real world. A lot of corporations actually look for either ex- college athletes or ex military. My husband and I are both in pharmaceutical sales and our college experiences were a tremendous help breaking into this industry over a decade ago. You get your school paid for (either partially or full) and you get to play a sport that you love and you build on things that you will use for the rest of your life, so yes, play a college sport anywhere if you can. It's not easy, but its worth it!!
First off there is no such thing as a full ride scholarship, full ride only comes into play as the post mentioned above if you have academic scholarships etc....that doesnt exist anywhere. I played baseball on a NAIA team here in Kentucky for 2 years...We went to the NAIA college world series once while i was there and sent two players to play professional baseball (SS got picked up by Angels and he played for Panama in the World Baseball Classic, P got drafted in 22nd? round by the Indians, and just played in the NY Penn League All-Star game). There are some great NAIA teams out there, just as good as a lot of division I teams. If NAIA is youre only choice to play ball at the next level, then do it. A lot of kids just want to play and its there only option, and if the parents can pay then thats all that matters. Also there are other options here in Kentucky. Allice Lloyd and Berea will pay for your school fully if you are in a certain demographic. There are always options. and BTW college sports will not work unless you are dedicated as mentioned above as well. It is FULL TIME. I would wake up at 8 and go to class till 2, Practice from 2 to 5:30 or 6, eat, weightlifting from 7 to 8, study hall (not everyone had to go but i wasnt as dedicated academically as others lol) from 8 to 9:30. its hard work guys.
15thRegionSlamaBamma Wrote:haha isnt this the truth at Cumberland, we had 6 am weight sessions, breakfeast, class, lunch, class, work study, by then it was normally around 5 pm, go rest for about 30 min, get changed for training session, go practice, then dinner if the mess hall was still open if not then either A) went back to the dorm room and ate then a shower or B) went out to eat with a few of the guys, then took a shower, then it was off to the books, by the time I was done doing that it was 12 or 1 am, by that time I was either A) ready for bed, B) needed to go grocery shopping, C) doing laundry, or D) maybe had sometime to play a few games of Halo.. then the same thing the next day...However, Thursday nights took a night off of studying and we all went to Tonic in Knoxville lol
TONIC in knoxville....haha i went there once but never made it in the door if you know what i mean :ChairHit: had a few too many already by the time we got there. I went to Union I was just right down the road from you
im a junior with a 2.3 gpa with a 18 on the act and i play football you think i can get a schloarship