What kind of scholarship do top NCAA runners come in on?

Football can't get by on a roster of 53 like the nfl. So men's track has to go without the same funds as females since football is taking up so much of the men's athletic scholarship budget. That's why women get more full rides in track. For men its rare

Are you a man? Are those times mile and 2 mile?

Are you a terrible student? No runners get full rides because they nearly all get some academic or need based aid.

That's elite for sure. Good on ya.

Im curious, several folks have chimed in academic scholarships for runners, are you all saying its easier to get the scholarship (academic) if you are a recruited athlete? Like a bit of a work around for lack of $ on full ride athletic? Academic scholarships are available to anyone.

There are almost twice as many scholarships available on the women's side when factoring the higher scholarship limit and the greater number of programs. There are also 25 percent fewer girls participants in HS. I coach at the DII level, and I find myself offering very mediocre girls scholarship money. All of the top girls in HS can find a full ride if that's what they are after.

No. I just pulled up a random P5 school and their website says that 83% of students receive aid.

I think there is so much creativity in how they award money, you're probably right that very few people ACTUALLY get a full athletic scholarship. Why would you if you can figure out some need based or academic based help?
For example, I ran at a low level D2 program more than 20 years ago. They had zero money to offer but gave me an "irrevocable academic scholarship." (ie, didn't matter what grades I made)
For someone to get a full athletic scholarship I'd think they'd have to have ALL of the following:
-Be fast, obviously
-Be rich so they don't qualify for need based help
-Have low scores/grades so they can't get any academic help

Ie, not many people going to fit in all 3 categories.

Women have 18 scholarships for track/cross country and the men have 12.6. That's why there are more women with full scholarships. You should think of it more based on rank within your state/country than times since times change over time, but the number of scholarships do not. If you're roughly 50th best in the country in high school, AKA on the edge of footlocker or NXN qualifying, maybe you qualified or maybe you just missed, then you're probably looking at a 50% to a decent D1 school. A powerhouse D1 school might offer you only 10%-25% since they've got many people like that on their roster and they'd save something like 75% for a top 10 type person. To get a full to a top tier program, you've got to basically be the best or one of the top few in your class. To get a full at a mid level P5 school you'd need to be someone who can score points at their conference meet right away and/or be contending for their top cross country spot and hopefully lead them to a NCAA XC qualification.

I was sub 29 guy and top XC runner for my team on about 50% at a slightly above average P5 team, and I felt like I underperformed a little bit for what I was getting. Nowadays that would definitely be underperforming for a 50% scholarship unless you're on a team that isn't very competitive.

D1 UMD class of 77

4:09

1:54

6-02 HJ

48.7

9:03

54-08.5 SP

25 per cent

now it's just walk ons on the mens side. more coaches than runners

It is not easier for an athlete to get an academic scholarship, but usually they are being recruited and are applying early when schools award academic aid. Also a good coach will tell them what academic scholarships to apply for.

A top 5-10 in the ncaa athlete in their event can get a full ride for sure. Jump in the portal if not. But money isn’t the only factor for these kids. A lot will take a discount to go to their dream program or school.

Money also isn’t unlimited, high school coaches forget that and it can burn bridges. When I was coaching I had 25% of a scholarship for a whole recruiting cycle for men. The best kid in the state was in the county. I still called and recruited, hey we don’t have the money this year but you’ll get a full next year or before if someone leaves transfers etc. kid also got a great academic package.

but they coach went running his mouth everywhere that we were too full of ourselves to offer the best kid in the state a full ride. 12.6 and a 55 person team.

So it helps to get in/sign early? Mine is 4.0, top 20 ish in country, no need based, girl.

Runners I've coached have gotten from 50% to full rides.

Lots of athletes get fulls, plus additional Allston/COA, and when the athletes like Valby/Young do not it is because they are on institutional Full Rides (academic aid replacing athletic based aid).

NIL has created free agency, conferences have gotten bigger (but scoring is still top 8), international athletes are increasingly prevalent, and more schools are fully funded/have more available. This has created a market where conference scorers (especially top 3) are usually paid very highly.

Scoring is tough in a lot of conferences and aid will be heavily concentrated in a few athletes. Not uncommon for a DI team to have 9-10 scholarships invested in 12-15 guys, and the other 2-3 doled out in very small amounts to the remaining 30-40 guys on the squad.

Started as a walk-on at a mid-major D1 program (had a 40% academic scholarship). (Had run 4:25, 16:02 in XC)

Earned athletic $$ after sophomore year (was top 20 in conference XC, top 3 guy on team that placed in the top 3 of the conference). At that point I earned 20% athletic.

Got bumped to 25% athletic of an undergrad full scholarship for a fifth year since I lost my academic stipend, but that covered all my tuition and I just had to pay for housing/food. At that point I had been a top 3 guy in XC for 3 years and was my school's top guy at 5k/10k in track, albeit had not scored at the conference level in track.

Went nuts my fifth year and got down to 14:06 for 5k, was the runner-up at my conference indoor meet, and after getting injured early in outdoor I approached my coach to sixth year since I still had two seasons of eligibility left (COVID was part of my college experience). For my sixth year, despite at that point being probably the 2nd or 3rd most valuable athlete on my team in terms of points I could contribute at the conference level, I was only on 10% for my sixth year, but I think a large part of that was me asking in May about coming back in the fall and there wasn't money left.

Debated going in the portal because I was kind of training alone and definitely knew I could get the sixth year fully-funded somewhere after running 14:06, but I valued continuity and my existing setup at my school of chasing more money elsewhere or going Power 5.

Having been at a mid-major for six years, I know some kids had packaged full-tuition rides (usually 1/2 academic, 1/2 athletic), but everyone was paying something. Only one kid in my six years ever received a full-athletic scholarship, but he was a footlocker qualifier and mutliple-time state champion so that's what it took to get a kid like that to go to a mid-major. We were also a school that valued all aspects of track (distance, mid-d, sprints, jumps but no throws) so the money was divided amongst those lines as well.

Our women's program had multiple girls on full-rides that comparably would be walk-ons on the men's side in terms of their times, but our women's team did stink and had a sh*t culture. There were girls on full-rides who were running 5:15/11:10s as freshman in high school but then had regressed to like 5:25/11:40s as a juniors and yet our women's coach would still offer them the world. Never made any sense, but then again she did get fired after my fifth year. I guess you can throw around money more when women's track programs are fully-funded and men's programs are not.

That's what we call a full ride. They are just using accounting tricks to be able to give more money to others.

One coach told me they pay their athletes something like $6,000 a year as an academic award. The award goes to anyone who remains eligible.

If you think Katelyn Tuohy paid a dime, I think you are mistaken. Sure, the program is going to get as many academic grants or whatever she qualifies for so they will more money for others but she's not paying a dime.

PS. It's way eaiser to get $$ for a 5th year. I had a runner at Cornell who never scored in our conference get a ful ride to Ohio State for a 5th year. He was like 348/809 in 2014. But it's less risk for the colleges as it's only one year and good luck finding an 8:09 guy out of HS that late in the game.

I agree it was a Zero pay but not a full ride on paper.

the major difference is at most schools you have to keep your grades up and look how your scholarship is written.

Dollars are not percentages. The cost of school goes up each year. Make sure it says tuition not 20k for example (it may be $24k by graduation).

Are you able to move off campus or are you stuck in the dorms for 4 years?

Know the GPA and hours/ class requirements. You could lose your academic aid if your grades drop. Also, you could be in the honors college and have to take certain classes at weird times.

Also if a coach says they will increase you with performance, don’t count on it happening

You are naive. A 1:47 high school kid last year got no athletic offers from several schools amd tiny ones from some others. He is paying a decent amount of money even after his academic aid.

My son has a friend who has run 28:20 and is only getting 25% and he knows anotger guy who won a title indoor this year is only getting 50%.