Texas university offering esports scholarships

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Esports are on the rise and now many colleges and universities are offering scholarships.

Concordia University started its esports varsity team in 2019.

"I love playing with my teammates," said Kaitlin Morgan, who is on the Concordia University esports team.

The team has about 40 members with most of them receiving a scholarship to play.

"I was drawn to Concordia because they had an esports team," Morgan said. "We are doing something we love, but also we are going to get scholarships from it. I think that is a big thing for a lot of students."

Pennsylvania's Robert Morris University was the first to have a varsity esports team in 2014, since then, more and more colleges and universities have started doing the same.

"It is really amazing to see the growth over the 10 years from 2014 to where we are now in 2024," Marc Valdoria, esports coordinator for Concordia, said. "A lot of our players receive the scholarships on top of the merit scholarships that we offer. Based on the scholarship we have, it is $250 a semester."

Valdoria said the growth of the sport is only ramping up, which could mean more scholarships and better facilities in the future.

"Right now we have 13 PCs in our facility and we are hopefully looking to expand in the summer and that way we can entice more students to come to Concordia," Valdoria said.