College Bowling Scholarships
Note – NCAA Bowling scholarships are only awarded to women
If you are an excellent bowler with strong grades you could be in line to earn a bowling scholarship to college. The most important thing to know about being recruited for bowling is that college coaches do have limited budgets for finding suitable student athletes. Bowling coaches rely on athletes who are interested in their University to contact them with their resume to be evaluated for scholarship and walk-on opportunities.
College bowling coaches will want to learn a lot about you before offering you a bowling scholarship. A coach is going to want to know your grades, attitude, commitment, average score and ability level. In order to do this you will have to build a relationship with this coach so that they feel comfortable having you as part of their team.
You are competing against 52,653 high school bowlers who are all fighting for scholarship opportunities at the collegiate level. In most cases, to be considered for a bowling scholarship you should have an average score above 170 and be part of a bowling league. If you have a lower average score than 170 you could still possibly get a scholarship, but it is most likely that you would be a walk-on athlete.
If you are not part of a bowling league I suggest that you join one. This will give your more competition experience and prepare you better for college bowling. It is also important to give coaches as many opportunities as possible to see you bowl in a competition setting. Most coaches will want to see you bowl live in person before offering you a scholarship. The more tournaments you play in, the more chances a coach has to see you play live and learn more about you.
Total Bowling Programs:
NCAA D1 – 31 (5 scholarships awarded for each team)
NCAA D2 – 17 (5 scholarships awarded for each team)
NCAA D3 – 7
NJCAA – 17
In addition to the NCAA and NJCAA programs there are also many universities across the country that offer bowling as a club sport. This is another great opportunity for student athletes to continue to compete at the intercollegiate level. During your college search make sure to ask the head coach if bowling is offered as a NCAA scholarship sport or a club sport at their school.