Merit Aid for Athletes: How to Cut College Costs

<script type="application/ld+json"> { "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "image": { "url": "https://csuxjmfbwmkxiegfpljm.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/organization-34605/1786775853347_Student-athlete-walking-on-campus-with-baseball-gear.jpeg", "@type": "ImageObject", "caption": "Student athlete walking on campus with baseball gear" }, "author": { "url": "https://nationalscoutingbureau.com", "name": "Nationalscoutingbureau", "@type": "Organization" }, "headline": "Merit Aid for Athletes: How to Cut College Costs", "publisher": { "url": "https://nationalscoutingbureau.com", "name": "Nationalscoutingbureau", "@type": "Organization" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "description": "Discover how merit aid for athletes can significantly lower college costs. Learn key strategies to maximize your financial aid options.", "dateModified": "2026-08-15T06:39:46.689Z", "datePublished": "2026-08-15T06:39:46.689Z" }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "item": "https://nationalscoutingbureau.com", "name": "Nationalscoutingbureau", "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1 }, { "item": "https://nationalscoutingbureau.com/merit-aid-for-athletes", "name": "Merit Aid for Athletes: How to Cut College Costs", "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2 } ] } ], "@context": "https://schema.org" } </script> <h1 id="merit-aid-for-athletes-how-to-cut-college-costs" tabindex="-1">Merit Aid for Athletes: How to Cut College Costs</h1> <p><img src="https://csuxjmfbwmkxiegfpljm.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/organization-34605/1786775853347_Student-athlete-walking-on-campus-with-baseball-gear.jpeg" alt="Student athlete walking on campus with baseball gear"></p> <p>Yes, student-athletes get academic merit aid, and most families leave real money on the table by treating athletic recruiting as the whole game plan instead of one piece of it. Merit aid comes from a completely different office than athletic scholarships, follows different rules, and stacks right alongside them. Every family chasing a roster spot should be building a parallel academic file just as hard.</p> <p>Here’s the priority list, in order:</p> <ul> <li>File the FAFSA even if you think you won’t qualify for need-based aid. Many colleges use it to unlock institutional merit money.</li> <li>Build a clean academic paper trail: transcripts, test scores, class rank, and any honors coursework.</li> <li>Call the admissions or financial aid office directly and ask how merit scholarships stack with athletic awards.</li> <li>Ask your coach how their program packages athletic aid alongside merit and need-based aid.</li> </ul> <p>About two percent of high school athletes land a college athletic scholarship, according to <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/what-we-do/scholarships-grants/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NCAA data</a>, and most of those awards are partial, not full rides. That single stat is why merit aid deserves equal attention from day one. The NCAA itself invests over $10 million annually in postgraduate scholarships and grants, a signal that academic performance carries real financial weight throughout an athlete’s career.</p> <h2 id="key-takeaways" tabindex="-1">Key Takeaways</h2> <p>Merit aid for athletes works best when families treat it as a parallel track to athletic recruiting, not an afterthought, and file every required form on time.</p> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Point</th> <th>Details</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>File FAFSA early</td> <td>Submit it as soon as it opens October 1 to unlock federal and institutional aid options.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Protect course rigor</td> <td>Prioritize honors and AP courses since merit committees weigh difficulty over raw GPA.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Apply to every merit program separately</td> <td>Many institutional scholarships require a distinct application beyond general admissions.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Get award terms in writing</td> <td>Confirm renewal conditions before accepting any combined athletic and merit package.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Run net-price scenarios</td> <td>Compare Cost of Attendance minus all aid, not just the scholarship label, across every school.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ask about stacking rules and use verified scouting</td> <td>Confirm which aid component gets reduced first, and consider Nationalscoutingbureau’s FlightScope evaluations and Tuition Rewards to strengthen both the athletic and financial picture.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h2 id="table-of-contents" tabindex="-1">Table of Contents</h2> <ul> <li><a href="#how-does-merit-aid-for-athletes-differ-from-athletic-scholarships">How Does Merit Aid for Athletes Differ From Athletic Scholarships?</a></li> <li><a href="#where-can-student-athletes-find-merit-aid">Where Can Student-Athletes Find Merit Aid?</a></li> <li><a href="#what-do-colleges-look-for-and-when-do-deadlines-hit">What Do Colleges Look for and When Do Deadlines Hit?</a></li> <li><a href="#what-should-families-do-right-now-to-maximize-merit-aid">What Should Families Do Right Now to Maximize Merit Aid?</a></li> <li><a href="#how-do-you-compare-a-partial-athletic-scholarship-against-a-merit-heavy-path">How Do You Compare a Partial Athletic Scholarship Against a Merit-Heavy Path?</a></li> <li><a href="#how-do-ncaa-and-naia-rules-handle-merit-and-athletic-aid-together">How Do NCAA and NAIA Rules Handle Merit and Athletic Aid Together?</a></li> <li><a href="#what-should-families-do-from-sophomore-year-through-enrollment">What Should Families Do From Sophomore Year Through Enrollment?</a></li> <li><a href="#how-does-nsb-approach-merit-planning-for-athlete-families">How Does NSB Approach Merit Planning for Athlete Families?</a></li> <li><a href="#how-can-the-national-scouting-bureau-help-with-merit-aid-planning">How Can the National Scouting Bureau Help With Merit Aid Planning?</a></li> <li><a href="#where-should-families-verify-these-details">Where Should Families Verify These Details?</a></li> <li><a href="#sources">Sources</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="how-does-merit-aid-for-athletes-differ-from-athletic-scholarships" tabindex="-1">How Does Merit Aid for Athletes Differ From Athletic Scholarships?</h2> <p>Academic merit aid rewards your transcript. Athletic scholarships reward your bat speed, your 60 time, or your pitching velocity. Need-based aid, tied to the FAFSA and programs like the Federal Pell Grant, rewards financial circumstance. All three can land in the same aid package, but they come from different offices with different rulebooks.</p> <p>Merit scholarships get decided by admissions or the financial aid office. Nobody on the coaching staff signs off on that check. Athletic scholarships, by contrast, run through the coach and the athletics department, and NCAA guidance makes clear that renewability and terms vary widely by school and division. A coach can choose not to renew an athletic award year to year. A properly earned merit scholarship, tied to GPA and enrollment status, tends to follow steadier rules.</p> <p>Award size differs too. Institutional merit scholarships commonly range from a few thousand dollars a year up to full tuition at smaller private colleges competing for strong students. Athletic aid ranges from a token amount, sometimes called a “book scholarship,” up to a full grant-in-aid covering tuition, room, board, and fees at the D1 level. Both get capped by a school’s Cost of Attendance, so stacking too much aid from too many sources just triggers a reduction somewhere in the package.</p> <blockquote> <p>Coaches often prefer recruits who qualify for merit aid, because those recruits stretch a limited athletic budget further and let the roster carry more depth without blowing the scholarship allotment.</p> </blockquote> <p>That single dynamic changes how families should present themselves to coaches. A strong transcript isn’t just an insurance policy. It’s a recruiting asset.</p> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Aid Type</th> <th>Controlled By</th> <th>Typical Renewal Terms</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Academic merit scholarship</td> <td>Admissions / financial aid office</td> <td>Renewed annually based on GPA and enrollment status</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Athletic scholarship</td> <td>Head coach / athletics department</td> <td>Renewed annually at coach discretion</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Need-based aid (FAFSA/Pell)</td> <td>Financial aid office</td> <td>Reassessed yearly based on updated FAFSA</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <h2 id="where-can-student-athletes-find-merit-aid" tabindex="-1">Where Can Student-Athletes Find Merit Aid?</h2> <p>Merit money isn’t locked behind D1 doors. It shows up across every level of college athletics, and in some cases the smaller programs are the more generous ones.</p> <p>NCAA Division I and Division II schools award both athletic scholarships and institutional merit aid, though D1 baseball programs typically split a limited scholarship pool across a large roster, meaning most players get partial awards that beg for merit money to fill the gap. NCAA Division III schools don’t offer athletic scholarships at all, but they frequently hand out substantial merit aid, and <a href="https://rosterwise.app/guide/stacking-financial-aid/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">RosterWise’s stacking guide</a> notes that institutional generosity varies enough that a D3 school can sometimes beat a D1 partial offer on net price. NAIA schools sit in between, often blending smaller athletic packages with meaningful merit scholarships. Private colleges across every division tend to have the deepest merit budgets, because they’re competing hard for enrollment.</p> <p>A few national academic awards are worth knowing by name:</p> <ul> <li>The <strong>Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship</strong> is the NCAA’s most prestigious academic honor for former student-athletes, awarding up to $48,000 across two years to one male and one female recipient pursuing graduate study.</li> <li>The <strong>National Merit Scholarship</strong>, based on PSAT/NMSQT performance, isn’t athletics-specific but stacks fine with athletic aid and can carry significant institutional match money at schools that court National Merit Scholars.</li> <li><strong>Tuition Rewards</strong>, the loyalty-style points program built into a National Scouting Bureau membership, works differently: families earn points tied to verified performance evaluations, redeemable at over 400 participating colleges.</li> </ul> <p>For families building out their scouting and exposure strategy, <a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com/blog/how-participating-college-networks-work-for-athletes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how participating college networks work for athletes</a> breaks down how verified scouting data actually gets in front of the right coaches.</p> <h2 id="what-do-colleges-look-for-and-when-do-deadlines-hit" tabindex="-1">What Do Colleges Look for and When Do Deadlines Hit?</h2> <p>Grade point average, course rigor, class rank, standardized test scores, essays, and demonstrated interest drive almost every institutional merit decision. Athletic ability doesn’t disqualify you from any of it, but it also doesn’t substitute for it.</p> <p>Here’s the timeline that matters most:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Junior year, fall through spring</strong>: lock in your strongest possible course schedule and take the SAT or ACT at least once, since some merit programs set hard score cutoffs.</li> <li><strong>Junior year, summer</strong>: build your college list with net price in mind, not just athletic fit, and start requesting information on institutional merit programs.</li> <li><strong>Senior year, fall</strong>: submit college applications, and separately, submit any institutional scholarship applications that require a distinct form.</li> <li><strong>Senior year, October through January</strong>: file the FAFSA (opens October 1) and, at schools that require it, the CSS Profile.</li> <li><strong>Senior year, winter</strong>: track school-specific merit deadlines closely. The University of Illinois’ <a href="https://scholarships.uaps.uillinois.edu/strive/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Strive Scholarship</a>, which reserves awards for students meeting combined academic and athletic criteria, closes on February 8, 2026, and deadlines like that don’t extend for late applicants.</li> </ol> <p>Some merit awards are automatic. A school states a GPA and test score threshold, and admitted students who clear it receive the award with no separate application. Others, especially the larger, named scholarships, require a distinct application, sometimes with essays or interviews on top of your regular admissions file. Missing that second application is the single most common way families lose merit money they actually qualified for.</p> <h2 id="what-should-families-do-right-now-to-maximize-merit-aid" tabindex="-1">What Should Families Do Right Now to Maximize Merit Aid?</h2> <p>Course rigor moves the needle more than almost anything else. A student with a 3.6 GPA in honors and AP courses usually outcompetes a 3.9 in courses with no rigor, because admissions offices read the transcript for difficulty, not just for grade point average.</p> <ol> <li><strong>Push course rigor first.</strong> Add an honors or AP class where you can realistically earn a B or better, not where you’ll struggle to a C.</li> <li><strong>Treat test prep as a merit investment, not just a college-entry hurdle.</strong> Structured test prep, like the programs at <a href="https://wonprep.com/test-prep-hillsborough-nj" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WonPrep</a>, can move a score into a higher merit bracket, and merit dollars often scale in tiers tied to specific score thresholds.</li> <li><strong>Ask your coach to advocate with admissions</strong>, not just athletics. A coach who tells the admissions office “this recruit is one of our top academic targets too” carries real weight in merit committee decisions.</li> <li><strong>Apply to honors colleges or specialized programs</strong> at target schools; these frequently carry their own merit budgets separate from the general scholarship pool.</li> <li><strong>Negotiate respectfully.</strong> If a comparable school offered more, send the better offer to the financial aid office and ask if they can match or improve their package. Financial aid offices reconsider offers more often than families expect, especially when the comparison school is a genuine peer institution.</li> </ol> <p><strong>Pro Tip:</strong> <em>When you contact a financial aid office about negotiating, frame the ask around combined value: “Our son is being recruited athletically and also qualifies academically for your merit tier. Is there flexibility in the package?” That framing gets a different response than a bare request for more money.</em></p> <h2 id="how-do-you-compare-a-partial-athletic-scholarship-against-a-merit-heavy-path" tabindex="-1">How Do You Compare a Partial Athletic Scholarship Against a Merit-Heavy Path?</h2> <p>The decision rule is simple: calculate net price after stacking every layer of aid up to the school’s Cost of Attendance, then compare across schools, not just across offers. RosterWise’s guide lays out the formula clearly: net price equals Cost of Attendance minus grants, scholarships, and expected family contribution, with loans covering whatever gap remains.</p> <p>Two scenarios show why this math matters more than the scholarship label:</p> <ul> <li><strong>D1 partial athletic path</strong>: $58,000 Cost of Attendance, $15,000 athletic scholarship (renewable annually at coach discretion), $3,000 institutional merit, leaving a $40,000 net price before loans.</li> <li><strong>D3 merit-heavy path</strong>: $52,000 Cost of Attendance, no athletic scholarship, $28,000 merit award (renewed automatically if GPA stays above a set threshold), leaving a $24,000 net price before loans.</li> </ul> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Scenario</th> <th>Award Type</th> <th>Renewability</th> <th>Controlling Office</th> <th>Net Price Before Loans</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>D1 partial athletic</td> <td>Athletic + merit</td> <td>Athletic aid at coach discretion</td> <td>Athletics + financial aid</td> <td>$40,000</td> </tr> <tr> <td>D3 merit-heavy</td> <td>Merit only</td> <td>Automatic if GPA maintained</td> <td>Financial aid</td> <td>$24,000</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The D3 school, with no athletic scholarship at all, comes out cheaper because its merit budget is deeper and the renewal terms are more predictable. That’s the scenario families skip past constantly because “no athletic scholarship” sounds like a worse outcome, when the actual net price says otherwise.</p> <p>One caveat worth flagging: the Pell Grant doesn’t get displaced by outside merit scholarships the way institutional aid sometimes does, so families with financial need should always run FAFSA numbers before assuming a merit-only school is out of reach.</p> <p><img src="https://csuxjmfbwmkxiegfpljm.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/organization-34605/1786775975997_How-Do-You-Compare-a-Partial-Athletic-Scholarship-Against-a-Merit-Heavy-Path-overview-diagram.jpeg" alt="How Do You Compare a Partial Athletic Scholarship Against a Merit-Heavy Path? — overview diagram"></p> <h2 id="how-do-ncaa-and-naia-rules-handle-merit-and-athletic-aid-together" tabindex="-1">How Do NCAA and NAIA Rules Handle Merit and Athletic Aid Together?</h2> <p>Merit aid usually stacks with athletic aid up to Cost of Attendance without issue, but each school’s packaging policy decides which component gets trimmed if the combined total runs over the cap. That detail is exactly where families get blindsided.</p> <blockquote> <p>Read the financial aid agreement before anyone signs anything. Athletic scholarships are typically renewed annually at the coach’s discretion, while merit awards are governed by fixed renewal criteria set by the financial aid office, and those two timelines don’t always move together.</p> </blockquote> <p>The Illinois Strive Scholarship is a useful cautionary example: it explicitly reserves awards for students meeting combined academic and athletic criteria, and administering it can bump against athletic grant-in-aid limits if a family isn’t careful about how the numbers get counted. Before accepting any combined award, contact the athletic compliance office directly, get every award term in writing, and ask admissions specifically how they treat outside or institutional merit scholarships when building the aid package.</p> <p><strong>Pro Tip:</strong> <em>Ask this exact question in writing: “If my son’s merit scholarship increases next year, does that reduce his athletic aid, or does it lower the family’s out-of-pocket cost?” The answer to that question tells you everything about how a school’s packaging policy actually works.</em></p> <h2 id="what-should-families-do-from-sophomore-year-through-enrollment" tabindex="-1">What Should Families Do From Sophomore Year Through Enrollment?</h2> <p>Start the academic trajectory in sophomore year, shift into test prep and college list building in junior year, and execute applications senior year. Waiting until senior fall to think about merit aid means missing scholarship applications that closed months earlier.</p> <ol> <li><strong>Sophomore year</strong>: build the strongest sustainable course schedule; start a simple spreadsheet tracking GPA by semester.</li> <li><strong>Junior year, fall</strong>: take a diagnostic SAT or ACT; begin researching merit programs at target schools.</li> <li><strong>Junior year, spring/summer</strong>: finalize test scores; build a college list weighted toward net price, not just athletic fit; use tools like the ones covered in <a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com/blog/collegeprospectorcom-alternatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CollegeProspector.com alternatives</a> to compare programs.</li> <li><strong>Senior year, fall</strong>: submit college and institutional scholarship applications; keep coaches updated on academic standing.</li> <li><strong>Senior year, October to February</strong>: file FAFSA and CSS Profile where required; track every merit scholarship deadline individually.</li> </ol> <p>Action-deadline checklist:</p> <ul> <li>File FAFSA the day it opens, October 1, since some institutional aid runs on a first-come basis.</li> <li>Submit separate institutional scholarship applications well before their stated deadlines, not the general admissions deadline.</li> <li>Loop in your coach whenever a merit deadline approaches; coach advocacy carries more weight with admissions than most families realize.</li> </ul> <h2 id="how-does-nsb-approach-merit-planning-for-athlete-families" tabindex="-1">How Does NSB Approach Merit Planning for Athlete Families?</h2> <p>Verified scouting changes what a coach can say to an admissions office on your behalf, and that shift is where Nationalscoutingbureau fits into the merit aid conversation. When a recruit’s metrics come from an objective source instead of a parent’s highlight reel, coaches advocate with more confidence, and that confidence often extends to academic advocacy too.</p> <p>Nationalscoutingbureau’s FlightScope-based evaluations give families measurable performance data that coaches can act on immediately, and the Tuition Rewards program adds a separate financial layer: up to 12,000 points per year, redeemable at over 400 participating colleges. Combined with a documented track record of more than 600 college placements and over 20 MLB draft picks, that’s a concrete asset families can bring into merit and financial aid conversations, not just recruiting ones.</p> <p>Families should think about contacting Nationalscoutingbureau during the same window they start building their academic file, sophomore or junior year, so scouting data and merit planning develop on parallel tracks instead of one lagging behind the other.</p> <h2 id="how-can-the-national-scouting-bureau-help-with-merit-aid-planning" tabindex="-1">How Can the National Scouting Bureau Help With Merit Aid Planning?</h2> <p>Nationalscoutingbureau gives families something no financial aid office or recruiting service combines on its own: verified performance data that strengthens a coach’s pitch to admissions, plus Tuition Rewards points that create real savings independent of any athletic scholarship outcome.</p> <p><img src="https://csuxjmfbwmkxiegfpljm.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/organization-34605/1780261783187_nationalscoutingbureau.jpg" alt="Nationalscoutingbureau"></p> <p>A membership includes FlightScope-based evaluations that turn raw athletic ability into metrics coaches trust, video analysis that documents progress over a season, and access to a network of 400-plus participating colleges through Tuition Rewards. None of that requires an athletic scholarship offer to pay off. It’s built to work alongside merit aid, not compete with it. For families who want the athletic development side covered too, resources like <a href="https://nextgencoxing.com/academy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coxswain Academy</a> complement the scouting and evaluation work with sport-specific training.</p> <p>If your family is entering junior year or later, the smartest next step is to get an evaluation on the calendar now. Visit <a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nationalscoutingbureau</a> to review membership tiers and start building both the athletic and academic file your coach and financial aid office will eventually see.</p> <p><img src="https://csuxjmfbwmkxiegfpljm.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/organization-34605/1786775722585_Hands-applying-pine-tar-to-baseball-bat-handle.jpeg" alt="Hands applying pine tar to baseball bat handle"></p> <h2 id="where-should-families-verify-these-details" tabindex="-1">Where Should Families Verify These Details?</h2> <p>Every figure and rule in this guide traces back to a primary source families can check directly before making a decision.</p> <ul> <li><strong><a href="https://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/scholarships-and-financial-aid/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NCAA Scholarships &amp; Financial Aid</a></strong>: confirms division-by-division rules on who controls athletic aid and how renewability works.</li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.ncaa.org/what-we-do/scholarships-grants/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NCAA Scholarships &amp; Grants</a></strong>: source for athletic scholarship odds and NCAA postgraduate grant funding.</li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/scholarships-and-grants/walter-byers-graduate-scholarship/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship page</a></strong>: details eligibility and award amounts for this national academic honor.</li> <li><strong><a href="https://rosterwise.app/guide/stacking-financial-aid/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">RosterWise stacking guide</a></strong>: walks through the net-price formula and how aid types interact up to Cost of Attendance.</li> <li><strong>Illinois <a href="https://scholarships.uaps.uillinois.edu/strive/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Strive Scholarship page</a></strong>: a real example of combined academic and athletic eligibility rules with a firm deadline.</li> <li><strong><a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nationalscoutingbureau</a></strong>: the practical next step for verified scouting data and Tuition Rewards points that support both recruiting and merit conversations.</li> </ul> <p>Use each source to double-check numbers before you build a family budget around them, and revisit institutional pages every admissions cycle since scholarship terms and deadlines shift year to year.</p> <p>This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified financial advisor. Consult a qualified financial professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.</p> <h2 id="sources" tabindex="-1">Sources</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/scholarships-and-financial-aid/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ncaa</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.ncaa.org/what-we-do/scholarships-grants/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ncaa</a></li> <li><a href="https://rosterwise.app/guide/stacking-financial-aid/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">How Athletic, Academic, Need-Based, and Outside Aid Actually Stack | RosterWise™</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/scholarships-and-grants/walter-byers-graduate-scholarship/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ncaa</a></li> <li><a href="https://scholarships.uaps.uillinois.edu/strive/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Strive Scholarship - University of Illinois scholarships site</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="recommended" tabindex="-1">Recommended</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com/blog/how-athletic-participation-unlocks-tuition-benefits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NSB Scouting | The Nation’s Fastest Growing Scouting Organization</a></li> <li><a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com/blog/maximize-529-plan-athletic-savings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NSB Scouting | The Nation’s Fastest Growing Scouting Organization</a></li> <li><a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com/blog/how-participating-college-networks-work-for-athletes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NSB Scouting | The Nation’s Fastest Growing Scouting Organization</a></li> <li><a href="https://nationalscoutingbureau.com/blog/collegeprospectorcom-alternatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NSB Scouting | The Nation’s Fastest Growing Scouting Organization</a></li> </ul>