College Tennis Information
(all info. According to collegetennisonline.com and NCAA.org)

Colleges are broken down into Div I, II, III, NAIA, and NJCAA.  There are approximately 1250 college tennis programs in the U.S.   Of which less than half are scholarship programs.  These numbers change each year with schools adding and dropping tennis programs.  Since Title IX in 1972: 346 men’s tennis programs have been dropped and 216 women’s programs have been dropped.

Scholarship Programs:

The average Women’s division I program offers between 0 and 6 ½ scholarships

The average Women’s division II program offers between 0 and 6 ½ scholarships

The average Men’s division I program offers between 0 and 4 ½ scholarships.

The average Men’s division II program offers between 0 and 4 ½ scholarships.

Division III no longer offers athletic scholarships.

NAIA and NJCAA schools may or may not

                                         Men’s Tennis Programs          Women’s Tennis Programs

2004 Number of Division I                  266                                301

2004 Number of Division II                 168                                205

Both the number of scholarships and programs changes each year with the financial standing of the college and athletic program.

Obviously, it is much harder for males to receive a full athletic ride to college.  Student athletes can make a team and receive an academic scholarship.  Athletic scholarships are often split and shared between two or more tennis athletes.

You can access a 2006 College Recruiting List by going to www.tennisinformation.com .  This site will also allow you to access every tennis tournament held throughout the nation from DPTA tournaments to a listing of national and super national tournaments. 

Professional Athletes:

According to U.S. Department of Labor the median annual earning of a professional athlete was $45,320 in 2002.

Team Sports:

Only 1 out of every 50,000 high school athletes will ever become a part of a professional team.

Going Pro?

The odds against your child becoming a pro by the time they are 18 is about three million to one.  According to the ITF and based on figures from 1985 – 1999, the average number of top 10 boys reaching the top 100 in the men’s tennis game was 5.4 per year.  Meanwhile, the average number of top 10 girls reaching the top 100 is 6.4 per year.

These statistics suggest that if you achieve a top 10 end-of-year junior world ranking you have a 54% chance of breaking into the top 100 of the men’s game and a 64% chance breaking into the women’s game.

Statistics on lightning are 1 in 700,000 people will be hit.  You are about 4 ½  times more likely to be struck by lightening then make it as a professional tennis player.