Division II relies on a partial-scholarship model to administer athletics-based financial aid.  Very few of the thousands of student-athletes competing in Division II will receive a full athletics scholarship that covers all of their expenses, but most of them will receive some athletics aid to help them through school. For the rest of their expenses, student-athletes use academic scholarships, student loans and employment earnings just like most other students attending the school.

The partial-scholarship model allows Division II schools to recognize student-athletes for their skills through athletics aid, while at the same time keeping athletics budgets more in line with the institution’s bottom line. It costs Division II schools substantially less to operate a competitive athletics program than it does in Division I. Median athletics budgets for Division II institutions — both with and without football — are less than half of those at Division I FCS and FBS subdivisions. In addition, athletics scholarship expenses account for more than 30% of the total athletics budget at Division II schools, compared with approximately 26-27% at the Division I FCS and FBS levels.

The partial-scholarship model is sometimes referred to as an “equivalency” system. That’s because schools in Division II are allowed to award athletics aid that is “equivalent” to a certain number of full grants in each sport.

For example, in football, schools are allowed to award up to 36 “equivalencies” or full grants, but of course the rosters in football are much larger than 36 players. Thus, coaches and financial aid administrators at Division II institutions decide how to allocate those equivalencies as partial scholarships. That means some student-athletes may receive more athletics aid than others, and some will not receive any at all. 

Equivalency limits per sport