With the consistent rise in college tuition costs and the decline nowhere in sight, many people need help paying for college. Fortunately for many young athletes, athletic scholarships offer students help in paying for education and tuition by providing money in the form of a scholarship or grant. These scholarships or grants come in many different shapes and sizes, along with many different rules and regulations. It is important to note as far as athletic scholarships go that each sport is treated very differently in terms of the amount of scholarship money available, as is each individual school, but athletic scholarships offer students the opportunity to continue playing sports at the collegiate level while at the same time getting assistance in paying for a college education.

For young amateur athletes, getting an athletic scholarship not only means being able to continue playing a sport at the collegiate level, but also assisting in the payment of the education and tuition that coincides with further schooling. Because intercollegiate athletics bring in school revenue each and every year, athletic programs have invested a large amount of money in recruiting. Coaches spend weekends and summers searching for amateur athletes who will help their teams win, which will ultimately bring schools more money through their successful programs. Coaches see the young players perform and have the opportunity to invite those players to compete in that sport at the coach's school and sometimes result in an athletic scholarship.

These athletes are not judged solely on talent, rather they are judged as a person. Recruiters routinely find out every possible detail they can about the prospective athlete because there is so much at stake for these coaches and their teams to perform. Players are not only interviewed on the field through with their play, but they are also interviewed off the field through their behavior and demeanor.

Once a player agrees to the term of the scholarships, many rules are applied to the agreement. As a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rule, each scholarships is a one year commitment, so each player that chooses a certain school is only guaranteed to play for that institution and that team for one full year. After that first full year, the school can re-evaluate each player.

The NCAA has placed a large number of rules on those with scholarships for college while at the same time placing strict penalties to those players and institutions who do not follow the rules. Intercollegiate athletes have to maintain certain grades as well as maintain a certain behavior, not only on the field but off the field, too. Anything questionable that scholarship athletes do on or off the field is under the jurisdiction of the NCAA and is dealt with swiftly.