ARLINGTON, Texas – The United States Bowling Congress Scholarship Management and Account Reporting for Tenpins (SMART) program is making an investment earnings allocation of $8 million to provide additional scholarships for youth bowlers. Funding will take place on Feb. 14.

For 2026, SMART will have a $7 million standard allocation, which is consistent with funding provided since 2022 and matches the largest investment earnings allocation in SMART history.

In addition to the standard earnings allocation, SMART is allocating $500,000 in earnings to support USBC national scholarship programs. This funding allows USBC to continue to provide added scholarships to the USA Bowling and Junior Gold programs as well as other USBC-conducted national programs.

SMART also approved $500,000 for additional SMART Pell Grant Match funding for the 2025-2026 school year.

Due to policy adopted in 2021, a portion of annual investment earnings immediately goes to new scholarships for youth bowlers. SMART is progressively paying more benefits for students every year. In 2025, SMART processed the largest total disbursements in program history, reaching $15.2 million. This exceeds the previous record set in 2024 of $13 million.  

Included in the 2026 allocation (approximate numbers):

• $2.6 million in bonus scholarships to the 7,996 active SMART Recipients. These are students who used SMART funds in 2025. Each student will immediately receive a new $328 SMART scholarship.
• $1.8 million in new SMART deposited unassigned funds for Providers to allocate toward future scholarships. This is in addition to the new $3.5 million SMART deposited unassigned funds Providers received for allocation in December from expired Recipient accounts.
• $2.6 million set aside for the SMART Pell Grant Match Program for the 2026-2027 academic year.

“The decision to allocate more money this year to our Recipients and Providers is one we take great pride in,” USBC President Dennis Hacker said.  “SMART is helping kids in so many ways now, and we can tell our efforts are successful when we are able to fund USA Bowling, Junior Gold and other national programs, while at the same time maintaining the increased demand in secondary education.”

The federal Pell Grant is a national program that helps students and families with the greatest financial need pay for college. The SMART Pell Grant Match maximizes the power of this federal program for bowlers by matching it dollar for dollar. The SMART Pell Grant Match will be available to any student who has a SMART account balance less than $1,000 and who has four prior seasons of USBC membership, with at least one of those seasons being a USBC Youth membership specifically. Students can request the SMART Pell Grant Match by visiting BOWL.com/SMART.

“The ability to help youth bowlers in financial need through the SMART Pell Grant Match program simply can’t be overstated,” said Frank Wilkinson, chair of the USBC SMART Committee. “Through this program, SMART is helping to break down the barriers to higher education for so many youths and assisting in their ability to reach their goals and dreams.”

In 2021, the USBC Board of Directors approved a series of policy changes for SMART, designed to increase scholarship benefits for SMART Recipients. The new policy allocates a portion of investment gains to be awarded as new scholarships in SMART Recipient accounts.

For more information on SMART, visit BOWL.com/SMART.