Editing Patriot League (section)

===Athletic scholarships===
While Patriot League colleges have always offered need-based financial aid, league members have only been allowed to give athletic scholarships in recent years. Basketball scholarships were first allowed beginning with freshmen entering the league in the fall of 1998.

In 2001, when the league admitted American, which gave scholarships in all its sports (AU does not play football), the league began allowing all schools to do so in sports other than football. Lafayette, the last holdout with no athletic scholarships, began granting full rides in basketball and other sports with freshmen entering the school in the fall of 2006.  Most Patriot League schools do not give athletic scholarships in a number of sports, and Bucknell only granted them in basketball prior to the addition of football scholarships in 2013.

In the spring of 2009, Fordham University announced that it would start offering football scholarships in the fall of 2010. This action made Fordham ineligible for the league championship in that sport, but it also prompted a league-wide discussion on football scholarships. On February 13, 2012, the Patriot League announced its members could begin offering football scholarships starting with the 2013–14 academic year. Since then, each school has been allowed no more than the equivalent of 15 scholarships to incoming football players. Presidents from six of the seven football schools indicated they would award scholarships in the fall of 2012. [[Georgetown University]] did not commit to offering scholarships.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 13, 2012 |title=Comments from Patriot League Presidents on Football Financial Aid Announcement |url=http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/patr/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2011-12/misc_non_event/PLpresidentCommentsFootballFA.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304110111/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/patr/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2011-12/misc_non_event/PLpresidentCommentsFootballFA.pdf |archive-date=Mar 4, 2016 |website=Patriot League}}</ref> Since the transition to scholarship football was completed for the 2016–17 academic year, each football member has been allowed up to 60 scholarship equivalents per season,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://webfarm.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-13/patriot-league-to-offer-football-scholarships-for-first-time-starting-2013.html|work=Bloomberg|first=Eben|last=Novy-Williams|title=Patriot League to Offer Football Scholarships Starting in 2013 |date=February 13, 2012 |url-access=subscription |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001213802/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-02-13/patriot-league-to-offer-football-scholarships-for-first-time-starting-2013 |archive-date= Oct 1, 2017 }}</ref> a total only slightly lower than the NCAA limit of 63 scholarship equivalents for FCS programs. Currently, Patriot League schools are permitted to offer up to the NCAA maximum of 63 scholarships for its football programs.