Does it make economic sense for only some universities in a certain area to pay their sports scholars? Apparently


  ‘Athletic scholarships are common in the United States, but in many countries they are rare or non-existent.’


But are there countries where there are some universities that offer sports scholarships while other universities in the same country don't? We can shrink country to city, town, district, etc if you like (Note 2). I'll just say 'area'.

I have this relative: My relative and I are expats living in a certain area but permanent residents of the area. My relative recently got accepted into a first world university for an undergraduate degree in engineering and was accepted as a sports scholar...sort of.

None of the tuition is waived. The only thing my relative gets is a reduced fee to be on the team: Yeah, the university charges its students a fee to be on the team. My relative also gets lower grade requirements in admissions or retention, but my relative does not need that due to having outstanding grades in secondary. I figured this was a practice in this area where we both live and where we are both expats (see quote above).

However, I found out that several universities in this area apparently do offer sports scholarships ranging from 50-100% off tuition. One of the universities that offer is even of a lower QS ranking than the university that my relative is attending (Note 1). This to me seems like a big misunderstanding on my part, so I've emailed the university, although my relative has already asked, just to get first hand confirmation.

In the mean time: Why would anyone play sports for a university against other universities but not get paid or get tuition waived for the playing?

Some guesses:


Lower admission grade requirement
Lower retention grade requirement
Admission or retention for dormitory requirement
Possibility of future scholarships
Prospects of a sports-related careers after graduation that include but are not limited to professional sports


The thing is none of my guesses explain why those universities apparently have sports scholarships that waive tuition at least partly while this university doesn’t. Why wouldn’t sports scholars from a university that doesn't pay their sports scholars just transfer to another university in the next year thus causing the university to lose in inter-school competitions?

(Note 1): My relative applied to all universities in our area for sports scholarships and was rejected for all but this university. Also, our area has less than 10 universities, and they're all in the QS... Wait, lemme check...Yeah, ACTUALLY, my relative's university has the highest world QS ranking in our area. Meanwhile, the university with the lowest world QS ranking in our area has sports scholarships. Also, all universities in question are in the top 100 in our continent's world QS ranking, our continent is not Africa, and my relative's university is not the highest in our area for our continent's world QS ranking.

(Note 2): I'm thinking perhaps of a possibility where, say, in North America or Europe this might be the case but is not the case for a specific state or city or something like Massachusetts, Boston, UK or London. You can shrink as much as you want on the condition that universities in your shrunken area compete with each other in sports.
I mean, even in the US, the ability of a school to offer sports scholarships is determined by what athletic conference(/division) they belong to: Division III schools are forbidden from offering athletic scholarships. (So in that regard- it can vary even at the city level. Boston has some schools that give athletic scholarships, and some that don't). In fact, in that example, Northeastern University provides athletic scholarships, but three blocks away is Wentworth Institute of Technology that doesn't.

As far as why would someone play a sport without the possibility of scholarship? For some, I'm sure it's the potential for a future athletic scholarship (for example, many US football players will play their first couple of seasons for a community college in the hopes of attracting attention from NCAA Division I programs). For others, I'd guess the potential of going pro- if you didn't get offered a spot on a team that provides athletic scholarships, this might be your only chance to improve and try out for a pro team later.

But for most, I'd guess it's probably because they enjoy it. Many US schools have club teams in many sports, which compete against local schools and offer no real chance for financial returns. Moreover, why do so many students participate in other competitive extra curricular activities? I'd guess the same reason.