So, field hockey is your sport. You've got the skills. You've got the passion. You've got a mouth guard in your team colors. And you've got your eye set on an NCAA scholarship with a team that'll take you all the way to the Big East Conference.

Good for you for having life goals. However, before you go shopping for a new mouth guard that'll coordinate with your future uniform, you might want to check out what your chances of getting that scholarship are.

They are, in two words: not good. The NCAA only allows each school to give out 12 scholarships per year (source). That's 936 scholarships for Division I and 276 for Division II, or 1,212 total. Division III doesn't offer scholarships—only financial aid (source).

"That sounds like a lot," you say, and it would be, if there weren't 60,000 high schoolers playing field hockey (source). If every one of them went for a scholarship, your chances of getting one would be about 2% (source). Getting one of those babies is like getting a perfect goal…from the other side of the field…when the goal is on the other side of the Rockies. It's theoretically possible, but the odds aren't in your favor. Like, at all.

As if that wasn't enough, those 12 scholarships per team per year aren't all full rides. Field hockey is an "equivalency" sport, meaning that each team can divvy up the scholarship money as it sees fit (source). The average scholarship is under $11,000—barely enough to put a dent in your tuition—and the school isn't obligated to renew it (source). It's a one-year contract, and if they decide that they don't like you after all, you're outta there.

Depressed yet? Take a minute to watch this baby sea otter paddle around and try to eat a plastic lobster.

Feel better? That's good, because there's more bad news.

Field hockey can be a pricey sport to play. A good hockey stick costs between $200–$400 (source). You'll also need a uniform, cleats, shin guards, a mouth guard, gloves, grip tape, goggles, a water bottle, a bag to lug it all in…and if you're a goalie, you also need tons of extra protective gear, none of which is cheap (source). You don't have to be part of the 1% to play, but if you really want a cheap sport, you shouldn't choose this one. We hear Ultimate Frisbee's a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, how willing are you to give up your free time? Playing a sport in college is a whole different ball game (#sorrynotsorry). Along with a full academic workload and team practices, there are also mandatory extra training sessions, mandatory study halls, and mandatory hours on the team bus as you go from game to game. That's a whole lot of mandatory.

A lot of college athletes find that they feel isolated from the majority of the student body  because they just don't have time to sign up for clubs or hang out with people outside of their sport (source). Get ready to say, "I can't, I have practice," a lot.

Field hockey is also dangerous. Injuries of all sorts abound—usually sprained ankles, cuts, and bruises, but also more serious problems like chronic lower back pain, tendinitis all through the legs, torn ACLs, and even lacerations and concussions. One bad injury can end your whole career, and when you're playing all the time, your chances of getting one of those life-ruining injuries skyrockets. If you tear your ACL in the second semester, that's your hockey career severely stunted, if not ended completely. What're you going to do then?

And if the idea of going to college in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, or the upper Midwest makes you want to eat your cleats with barbecue sauce, then you'd better fire up the grill. Field hockey is a localized sport; aside from a few schools in California, it's not really played outside of the North- and Mid-Eastern U.S. (source). So either pack your snow boots or start reading up on the University of Arizona's Ultimate Frisbee team.

If you're still not put off, then you might actually have a chance...providing you're really good and really proactive. Spots on D-I field hockey teams are limited and you've got to be the crème de la crème to score one. Passion and determination count, but so do raw numbers. Get your grades up. Get your performance stats up. Get yourself psyched up, and then start getting in touch with college coaches.

Now, let's say that by a lot of hard work and a minor miracle, you get your dream scholarship to your dream school. You play four years of good, solid field hockey. Your team goes all the way to Nationals—and wins. You graduate a champion, and then you take a look around, and you realize…you don't have a clue what to do next.

Field hockey is not a big sport in the States. There's no NFHA to aim for; there's only Team USA, which competes in big-deal international tournaments like the World Cup, the Pan-American Games, and the Olympics. We probably don't have to tell you how limited the spots on Team USA are.

The cold, hard truth is that there is no future in field hockey. For most people, college is as good as it's going to get, and college only lasts four years. Once that's over, you're probably going to be wishing that you had spent a bit more time hitting the books.

Bottom line? Pinning all your hopes and dreams on an NCAA field hockey scholarship is like pinning anything to a balloon: it's not going to end well. Go to college to get an education first and play field hockey second and you'll avoid getting burned.