One of the unusual things about college athletics scholarships is that many times acceptance comes down to whether the family can afford to take the scholarship.

The notion seems strange because a scholarship is free money, right?

But athletics scholarships usually aren't full scholarships.

So the lists we are including in today's section (pages 9-12C) of some area high school students who are accepting athletics scholarships is deceptive.

A few of the athletes, football and basketball players primarily, are receiving full athletics scholarships. Many are receiving some athletics financial aid. But many -- perhaps most -- are getting very little athletics financial aid.

Colleges rarely give full athletics scholarships to anyone other than football and basketball players.

The NCAA regulates the number of athletics scholarships its member schools can give. So often, a single scholarship is divided among several athletes.

That division forces many families to make a decision.

An athlete's family might need an additional $20,000 a year to cover expenses if their college-bound student accepts a half-scholarship to a school that costs $40,000 a year.

They either must find other funding or the student can give up on the dream of participating in athletics at that school and attend a less expensive one.

But high school athletics never were envisioned as a way to get college scholarships.

High school athletics exist in the United States -- and almost no where else in the world -- to help develop citizens for our democracy.

High school athletics are meant to teach lessons about sportsmanship, teamwork, loyalty and sacrifice.

But mostly, high school athletics are supposed to be fun.

High school athletes generally play for enjoyment, which is good because 99 out of 100 high school athletes never receive an athletics scholarship to college.

According to a recent U.S. News and World report, there are about 7 million high school athletes, but there are only 151,000 athletes in Division I of the NCAA and 75,000 in Division II.

And get this. Less than half of those NCAA athletes receive any athletics financial aid, according to the same article.

Take football and basketball out of the equation, and the odds get out of hand pretty quickly.

High school athletics and athletics scholarships have changed a lot in the past 30 years.

Colleges rarely recruit from high school teams anymore except in football.

Some colleges recruit athletes without ever talking to anyone at the high school.

Much of the recruitment takes place during college teams' offseason, primarily the summer.

Not everyone who wins an athletics scholarship is a great student, but for the vast majority of high school students, the best way to get financial aid for college is to be a good person and to study hard.

High school athletes have a lot of fun, learn some life-long skills and test their boundaries, but an athletics scholarship usually isn't in the picture.

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