There’s a lot of misconceptions when dealing with the recruiting process in Canada. The landscape is constantly changing and if things go properly, it’s a once in a lifetime ordeal.

For starters let’s look at CIS scholarships and what they really can do.

First off there is an equivalent max per sport of 70% of the Championship roster. For football that game day roster is 45 players and not the total roster that they carry (in some cases over 100). So that means 31.5 equivalent scholarships. In both men’s and women’s basketball that means 8.4 equivalent scholarships.

What does an equivalent scholarship mean? That’s the tuition and fees cost for a single player. The dollar amount doesn’t matter. So for example two players each get a scholarship for $5000 if player A’s tuition + fees costs $10000/year and player B’s tuition + fees costs $5000/year those two players equal 1.5 equivalent scholarships even though they got the same amount of actual dollars.

In Canada the so called “Full Ride” scholarship does not exist. The “Athletic Financial Award” is not supposed to cover books, room, board, or other costs associated to attending school. In the CIS the Financial Award is limited to covering the costs of tuition and fees.

That doesn’t however mean that that a CIS school can pay your $10000 tuition and fees. In the OUA for instance, athletic scholarships are capped at $4000 and first year students must enter University with a 80% average. It’s very important to find out from the Coach or the athletic department what rules are in place for that particular school or conference.

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+Kent Ridley