Any financial aid, from any source (school or 3rd party) given to an athlete counts as athletic aid.
You can't give a softball player a full ride via a Hope Scholarship and still pretend she's just a walk-on who doesn't count against the team's limit. It doesn't work like that.
Otherwise, I'm not sure what you're suggesting.
I am giving you all my understanding of the situation, but I am not an expert in college athletic financial rules. I thought, as all graduating Tennessee high school students with a 21 ACT and a 3.0 GPA, for instance, are able to get the following:
“Four-Year Institutions and two-year institutions with on-campus housing: Up to
$1,750 per full-time enrollment semester as a freshmen and sophomore; then up to
$2,250 per full-time enrollment semester as a junior and senior
Any financial aid, from any source (school or 3rd party) given to an athlete counts as athletic aid.
You can't give a softball player a full ride via a Hope Scholarship and still pretend she's just a walk-on who doesn't count against the team's limit. It doesn't work like that.
Otherwise, I'm not sure what you're suggesting.
I am giving you all my layman’s understanding of the situation, but I am not an expert in college athletic financial rules. I thought, as each and every graduating Tennessee (for instance) high school student with a 21 ACT and a 3.0 GPA, athletes or not, are able to get the following money:
“Four-Year Institutions and two-year institutions with on-campus housing: Up to
$1,750 per full-time enrollment semester as a freshmen and sophomore; then up to
$2,250 per full-time enrollment semester as a junior and senior”
Therefore, an athletic program that has a scholarship limit much lower than the roster needed to field a team (basically all sports but football and basketball), can cobble together for the student athlete their HOPE money, their other eligible financial aid, and finally any partial athletic scholarship money allowable you that sport (I think softball’s limit is 13) to lower the direct financial cost on that student athlete.
As HOPE money is broad-based and not applicable only to athletes, it is usable by athletes.