The three pools of money in college recruiting
Understanding where scholarship money actually comes from changes how you read every offer
Most families trying to play in D1 or D2 hear a scholarship number and spend the next week trying to figure out if they can make it work.
That’s the wrong starting point. The number you’ve been given isn’t the number that matters. What matters is what you’ll actually pay - and those two things are often very different.
Three pools of money
College coaches in equivalency sports - which field hockey is - don’t have unlimited money. They have a scholarship budget, and they have to build the best possible roster with it. Every dollar they commit to one player is a dollar they can’t give to another.
What most families don’t realize is that there are three separate pools of money available to a college athlete, and they work very differently.
Athletic aid comes directly from the coach’s budget. This is the percentage number they mention - 25%, 40%, whatever it is. It’s pulled from a fixed pool the athletic department controls, and it has to stretch across the entire roster.
Academic merit aid comes from the institution - the admissions or financial aid office, not the athletic department. If your daughter qualifies for this based on her GPA and test scores, that money typically doesn’t cost the coach anything. It exists independently of whatever athletic offer is on the table.
Need-based aid works similarly. It flows from the institution or federal government based on your family’s financial situation, largely driven by what you submit on the FAFSA. Again, it generally doesn’t touch the coach’s athletic budget.
Whether these sources can be combined - and how - varies by school. There’s no universal rule. Some schools stack them freely. Others have limits. Asking each school directly what’s available for someone with your daughter’s academic profile is one of the most important financial conversations you can have.
One more thing worth knowing before we get into how coaches think about this. The House settlement - the landmark legal case that reshaped college athletics in 2025 - increased the maximum number of scholarships available in D1 field hockey from 12 to 27.
Most families saw that headline and assumed it meant more money flowing into the sport. The reality is more complicated. A handful of programs increased. Many others stayed flat or quietly reduced, as institutional resources shifted toward revenue-sharing obligations in football and basketball.
And with rosters now potentially carrying up to 27 players, some coaches are spreading the same budget - or less - across more athletes than before. Nobody publishes their numbers. You won't find this information on any athletic department website, and most coaches won't volunteer it.
What you can control is how well you understand the other two pools of money available to you - because whether a program's athletic budget went up, down, or sideways, the academic merit and need-based aid picture is yours to explore regardless. A modest athletic offer from a program that's stretched thin looks very different once you know what else might be available to stack on top of it.
What this looks like from the coach’s side
A recruit who qualifies for $15,000 in academic merit aid is, in a practical sense, $15,000 cheaper to recruit than one who doesn’t.
The coach can offer less athletic money and still put together a package that makes the school affordable. Or they can offer the same athletic money and the family ends up with a significantly better deal. Either way, the coach’s budget goes further.
I’ve watched this calculation happen in real time. When a recruit has a strong academic profile, it genuinely shifts what a coach thinks they can offer. Not because they value her more as a player - but because she’s easier to fit into the budget.
For any offer short of a full ride - which is most of them in field hockey - the coach will typically point you toward academic and need-based aid as part of building the full picture. That’s not a signal of anything other than how the system works. The athletic number and the institutional aid number are separate conversations with separate parts of the university, and a good coach will help you navigate both.
What to do with this
If you are a strong student, that’s not a fallback talking point for when recruiting doesn’t go the way you hoped. It’s a financial asset - to the coach building a roster on a budget, and to your family trying to make the numbers work.
That’s why you mention your GPA in your emails, on your profiles, your website - anywhere a coach might look before starting to recruit you.
And when offers arrive, ask each school the same question: what other aid might be available to someone with your academic profile? Many families never ask. The ones who do often find the picture looks very different than the headline number suggested, and that they have more room to negotiate than they thought.
In Thursday’s newsletter, I’ll outline how to actually compare what you’ve been offered across schools, and why the percentage is usually the least useful number in that conversation.
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