Scholarship opportunities limited as colleges face revenue shortages amid COVID-19

This is part two of a three-part series on how the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on high school athletics have impacted college recruiting for the Class of 2021. Read part one here.

The effects of COVID-19 have hit the University of Colorado football program and head coach Karl Dorrell. The Buffs' 2020 season was pushed back two months and they will miss out on significant ticket revenue with Boulder County health regulations limiting fan attendance.

"We have a really good recruiting class right now-that's the '21 class we're real excited about," Dorrell said. "The frustrating part of it is, they're all so antsy to get here and meet coaches and meet their teammates and see this place physically and all that stuff, and we've really eliminated that this fall. There's a dead period that's been extended all the way to January."

Just over 500 fans (mostly limited to friends and family) were in attendance during CU's Nov. 7 home opener and no fans have entered Folsom Field since. College programs around the country have seen a significant dip in revenues because of these restrictions. CU earned over $14 million in ticket sales in 2019, approximately 80% of which came from football. Other numbers that could be impacted include the $16.7 million in football media rights and the $775,312 in recruiting expenses.

In 2019, CU's athletic department reported $4.9 million total in aid for 98 football student-athletes. Over 150,000 college-committed high school athletes have a pool of almost $3 billion in scholarships at the D-I and D-II levels, according to CollegeFinance.com. Boulder High School football coach Ryan Bishop predicts a stagnant situation in terms of his players getting financed to play. "Colleges are not losing money by not playing now, but they're not gaining money either," he said.

Oddly enough, roster sizes have actually increased in college baseball throughout the pandemic. The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility for players who lost their spring season, forcing rosters to grow.

"Nobody knows what's going to happen in the next couple months," Bishop said. "All these colleges are sitting there going, 'Instead of 89 scholarships, right now we're going to go to 86, and then we'll see what happens in the spring.'"

Louis Birch is a Colorado-based recruiting managerwho helps high school athletes promote themselves and connect with college coaches. He predicts that the high school class of 2021 could be most impacted by the entire situation. He said that some college coaches aren't even planning on recruiting the 2021 class and will stick with its 2020 redshirt freshmen. The NCSA confirmed Birch's notion when it found that 46% of college coaches have delayed recruiting its 2021 class. Fortunately, that number drops to 34% for the class of 2022.

"When the NCAA first shut down the season (in the spring) and they had indicated that the seniors could come back and play a fifth year, you had a fair amount of seniors that did come back," Birch said. "Compound that with the recruits from the 2020 classes as an example. This fall, you had seniors coming back and you had all the incoming freshmen that were recruited so they're (college programs) having to juggle those numbers."

At the D-1 level, $200 million was given to programs, but the scholarship pool hasn't increased much for smaller schools, Birch said. The direct impacts of this are yet to be seen, but it could spell disaster for smaller programs who weren't given a similar financial boost.

However, Birch believes that sub-Division I programs could benefit from talented student-athletes who may be D-I in a normal year, but now have to settle for a lower division.

Additionally, the number of athletes hoping to transfer to another college with better roster flexibility has skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic. In May, approximately 1,500 college athletes entered the NCAA transfer portal but just 22% of college coaches are looking to recruit more transfers.

"It's crazy out there," Birch said. "The supply of athletes is huge, but the demand for roster spots is small."