Junior colleges can award scholarships in men's and women's basketball.
Junior colleges are two-year institutions of higher learning that award associate's degrees. Many of them offer scholarships to attract talented basketball players to their student bodies. Most of the junior colleges in the U.S., except those in California, Oregon and Washington, follow the scholarship rules established by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
NJCAA Scholarship Rules
According to the NJCAA website, junior colleges who compete on the division 1 level are permitted to offer 15 full scholarships in men's and women's basketball. These are full scholarships that may not be split to subsidize more players, though some schools may not have the financial resources to offer the full 15 scholarships. The NJCAA website adds that Division 2 junior colleges may offer 15 scholarships as well, but Division 2 schools can only offer support for tuition, fees and books--not room and board. Division 3 schools are not permitted to offer athletic scholarships in any sport.
NJCAA Academic Requirements
To be eligible to compete and receive a scholarship as a freshman at an NJCAA school, athletes must be high school graduates or have earned a general equivalency diploma (GED). Students may be allowed to enroll in classes at the college without a diploma or GED, but to be on scholarship for competing in basketball, athletes must first earn one of these documents.
NJCAA Teams
According to the NJCAA Basketball Guide, 221 schools were competing at the Division 1 level in men's and women's basketball during the 2010-2011 basketball season, and 126 at the Division 2 level. Schools competing in these divisions range across the country, except for the states of California, Oregon and Washington which have their own governing organizations.
California, Oregon and Washington
Junior college athletics in California are governed by the California Community College Athletics Association (CCCAA), which does not permit the state's colleges to offer athletic scholarships. In addition, the schools can only offer academic state or federal aid to athletes if it is also offered to all other students. Thirty-five schools in Oregon and Washington compete in junior college basketball under the governance of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC), which permits its schools to offer eight full scholarships in both men's and women's basketball per year. These scholarships can be divided and split among multiple players.
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