College Sports - Soccer

Schools sponsored varsity Soccer teams in 2024:

Soccer is an equivalency sport for NCAA limits, so partial scholarships can be awarded as long as the combined equivalent awards do not exceed the limit. For example, an NCAA Division I school can award 28 female soccer players each a 1/2 equivalent scholarship and still meet the limit of 14 per team. For more information see our page on scholarship limits.

Do the Math! NCAA Division I men's Soccer teams have an average roster size of 29 players but only a maximum of 9.9 athletic scholarships to award per team. This means the average award covers only about 1/3 of a typical athlete's annual college costs - and this assumes the sport is fully funded at the sponsoring school.

* Average Athletic Scholarship is the average annual award per athlete for ALL varsity sports sponsored by the specific school. Some athletes receive full awards, some receive partial and many receive none. Additionally some sports within a school may be fully funded, some partially and some sports provide no athletic scholarships. Private schools generally have higher tuition than public schools and the average award will reflect this.

Odds of a High School Soccer Player competing in College 2024:

Odds of a US High School Soccer player making an NCAA I roster by State

Odds of playing D1 soccer are significantly less for US male players (119:1) than female players (48:1) for three primary reasons: There are almost 40% fewer Men's NCAA I soccer teams (205) than Women's teams (338), there are 16% more US high school male soccer players (476,203) than female soccer players (408,807) competing for roster spots and there is a much higher percentage of foreign student athletes playing Men's D1 soccer (34%) than playing on Women's teams (11%). US male soccer players have much better odds (about 3 times greater) of making an NCAA III roster over a D1 roster as there are over double the teams (421 versus 205) and D3 rosters are composed of a much higher average percentage of US players than D1 rosters.

The odds vary significantly depending on where you compete in High School. The odds of playing D1 are notably higher for players from the Mid-Atlantic states, but much lower for players in many other areas. The odds are especially low for states without NCAA I schools that sponsor men's and/or women's soccer: