BFA Acting D1 Athletics 2026

Applying to College
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Hi Folks,

I’m new here, this is my first post so hopefully I have posted this in the correct place :blush:

I’m looking into options for my son and I was wondering if anyone has any experience or thoughts on the BFA Acting programs at Coastal Carolina and Missouri State. We are particularly interested in these two schools as they offer lower tuition, scholarships and/or out of state tuition waivers.

He’s an Australian international student athlete currently completing an AA in Theatre Arts in California. We are looking at a few schools, particularly interested in finding out more about CC & MoS. He’s a sophomore, his Major GPA is 4.0 (3.56 overall but on track to finish higher)

I’m interested in finding out how rigid they are with course sequencing, are they highly academic or more hands on learning based? Do they have good faculty/networking/showcase opportunities? What’s the on-screen training like? Do you know of any athletes who balance their sport whilst studying acting?

Our selection criteria are based on schools with BA so that he can switch from the BFA if it’s too intense with football, good middle to lower end D1 football programs (possibly less intense than top 50 programs) and no or basic foreign language requirement (Not keen, only studied Japanese in middle school, like most West Aussies :grinning_face:)

He has applied to:

Michigan State, UNLV (BA), University of Cincinnati, Coastal Carolina, Missouri State

Others on our list are:

West Virginia, Ohio, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Oklahoma State, SEMO

Any suggestions for other programs that might fit our requirements or any insights/experiences would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

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By football, do you mean American football, or do you mean soccer?

If the latter, I can put you in touch with an Australian family whose son started at West Virginia and transferred to Amherst. While the student was not studying acting, they could comment on the types of schools.

I totally defer to those with knowledge of acting programs; I would have thought being near Los Angeles or New York would have been a plus, as would schools with strong reputations in the field (many of which are d3, which means they would be thrilled to get a d1-caliber athlete!).

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It’s likely American football. There are a lot of Australian punters on US college football teams.

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Hello, thank you for your response.

My apologies, I should have been more specific. He is a cornerback at a top 5 California community college American football program.

You make some very good points, but having financed our son’s education in California thus far has made a dent in our retirement savings, hence us casting the net a little further afield. Most good BFA programs have good networking opportunities or run senior showcases for agents, casting directors etc in New York and/or Cali. USC would be awesome, but California is just too darn expensive to fund another 2 or 3 years from our savings.

Our S has a handful of Australian friends currently playing D1 and D2 football and basketball, but we have yet to find anyone who has attempted to or is attempting to navigate both disciplines :blush:

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Hi Franklynn, you are absolutely right.

There’s an organisation here called Pro Kick, and they are known as the “punter factory”. They are very good and converting our Aussie Rules Footy guys into college and NFL calibre punters. My S is a cornerback, very rare for an Aussie, one of his ambitions is to be the first Aussie cornerback to play D1 football, which is very possible, but doing that and a BFA throws a bit of a spanner in the works. Acting was not part of the original plan but he gave a go and is apparently naturally gifted.

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Is your son being recruited by any D1 football programs or is he planning to try and walk on? In terms of the BFA, some of those programs are audition based so you should check on that. US colleges/universities tend to be expensive and many don’t offer $$ for international students so you should check on that for every school your son is considering.

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Hi Thorsmom66,

Thanks very much for your response.

No one really has much interest at the moment. The current situation for most JUCO players is that the early recruiting cycle is dominated by the portal guys. D1 coaches tend to focus on building their rosters from the D1 transfers first and then the very top JUCO guys and high school 5 star players. Last season, a fair few of our guys were recruited to D1 programs but mostly way after the end of the season and some during spring ball.

In terms of BFA programs, he has been academically admitted to all of the schools he has applied to and is currently working on his monologues and wild card vids for the auditions. The tricky thing is that he has to apply early to be eligible for the academic or merit scholarship offered to internationals by the schools he’s applied to, but at this stage, we have no idea where he is going to be playing. So our strategy is to keep moving forward with the BFA plan. If he is offered a spot, then he will reach out to the football program with some academic money already in place and see if they are willing to offer him or walk on and try to earn an athletic scholarship. Of course, that all goes out of the window if he is offered a full ride somewhere in the Spring :crossed_fingers: In that case we will need to “reverse engineer” our plan, hope there’s a BFA where he’s playing, start with the BA and audition into the BFA if possible.

Lots of ifs and buts, but all fun and games as we say :grin:

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What about a D3 school that offers a BFA, BA, football and merit scholarships for international students? My son’s school, Denison, for example, has all of that (including a bunch of famous theater alums) except the BFA. It would take some research, but there must be some that check all the boxes.

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Hi tkoparent,

That’s a great suggestion, thank you, could actually be a good solution to his dilemma. My S is dead set on being the first Australian cornerback to play D1 football, but if that doesn’t eventuate, I think your suggestion could be the way to go :+1:

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Oh, yes, I can understand that dream! But it is always good to have Plan B. @AustenNut , any ideas for either Plan A or Plan B?

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Hello!

You may want to also post this question know the Theatre/Drama Majors and Musical Theatre Majors forums. Folks there may have more insight into the questions about course sequencing coming with an AA degree, timeline to complete the programs (some require students to start with first year major cohort, so it could take 3-4 years to complete the major), feasibility of combining D1 athletics with a BFA in Acting/Theatre.

I teach at James Madison University in VA. It could be worth looking at. We do have students transfer into the Theatre major and complete in 2 years. Not sure how it would dovetail with football, but faculty and athletics staff could probably map out what that might look like.

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Wouldn’t a BFA program require lots of rehearsals which might conflict with football practice & meeting times ?

Is a BFA program compatible / doable in conjunction with a demanding athletic schedule ?

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Absolutely!

So plan A is a BFA and D1 football, a definitely demanding prospect.

Plan B, A BA and D1 football

Plan C BFA and D2/D3 football

I personally think a BFA with D1 football would have so many conflicts that would render it untenable. That’s the main reason for this thread, I haven’t actually been able to find anyone that has actually managed to do both, I’m just hoping to find somebody who has.

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Hi KatMT,

That’s great advice, thank you. I will try and post this over there, this is my first post so still finding my way around the site :blush:

I’ll look into JMU and consider how it might work for him. We’ve only targeted the programs that have stipulated that they will accept transfers with the right AA and enough major and GE units completed. My S has A’s in all of his theatre units and has almost completed all of his GE requirements. He has successfully completed 42 units to date and is currently taking 19 units academic units plus football this fall and has another 19 units, including the theatre production, mapped for the spring plus spring ball. He is also happy to do a BFA over 3 years as a transfer (as specified by Missouri and Michigan state) as opposed to the usual 2 year completion pattern for transfers.

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Hi Publisher, you are absolutely right. This is my concern, he his clearly very capable and he is adamant that he will be able to handle it. I think the bigger issue is how his coaches and/or BFA staff feel about him missing practice or rehearsals.

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Typically, neither will/would tolerate it (especially D-1 football programs). BFA programs,as you probably know, are more demanding than BA programs for acting/theater.

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I’ve had high school athletes and theater kids, even in high school you don’t miss practice or rehearsals.

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Agreed.

The coaches and theatre staff are very flexible with him at his current college. They have never had a theatre kid/football player at the college before, so he does get a bit of special treatment. He also puts in so much extra training on his own time, and when he is at practice, he is always the first there and the last to leave. On top of that, he learnt the playbook very quickly and the coaches constantly comment about how coachable he is. They always say to him “just remind us when you are going to be a bit late due to class” On the flip side, he is a straight A student in his major, the theatre staff know he will always catch up and get his lines learned/work done so they give him a pass if he arrives late or leaves early due to practice. However, I know that things are very different at the next level.

My research is really to find out if there are any programs out there that have actually allowed this combination and it has actually worked out.

I know Josh Norman, Bills cornerback, started at Coastal Carolina as a theatre major but ultimately had to transfer to a communications BA with a theatre minor. I suspect a similar outcome for my S, if all goes to plan, he’ll start out on a BFA and have drop down to BA.

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Indeed, it’s a precarious path at best :raising_hands:

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I think it would depend on the BFA or BA program and what performance participation requirements they have. It could also be a challenge depending on policies around class attendance. These will vary from school to school. I think it may be diffiult/unlikely to find a program where it would be possible to be a BFA Theatre major and a D1 sports player (or even a D2 or D3). It might be difficult in some BA Theatre programs as well. Over the years I have advised students with challenging combinations of majors, co-curriculars, etc… sometimes what they are trying to do is not possible and they need to make decisions and trade offs, sometimes there is a way to make it all work.

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