Funding Student-Athlete Stipends Adds to Northwestern's Costs
As schools all over the country are beginning to address whether or not they have the financial support to fund the full $2,000 cost of living stipends recently approved by the NCAA Board of Directors, even some schools at the BCS level are finding that they may struggle to support the stipends. While some conferences are getting involved and either mandating the stipends, or prohibiting them, the decision will still come down to the individual schools in most cases. Bigger schools have more revenue streams from a variety of sources, but the proposition of adding several hundred thousand dollars to the budget is not something to glance over. In order to receive the stipends, a student must already be on a full scholarship and bigger schools also have more students on the full ride scholarships, meaning more costs associated with the stipends. While the cost implications are certainly a major factor when looking at the stipends, there can also be potential Title IX implications as well, something this article touches on as well. That is going to depend on what prong a school is using to comply with Title IX, but issues can certainly arise if a school is looking to add the stipend for many of their male athletes on full rides; doing that may certainly mean that the school will need to provide the stipend to at least a portion of their female athletes on full scholarships.
President Emmert is quoted in the article as saying that fine tuning of the BOD legislation that was passed will take place over the coming years, which is a reversal of how the NCAA legislative process normally works. It will certainly be interesting to see what, if any, modifications are made to the financial aid and eligibility issues as we move towards these being implemented across the NCAA membership.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
The Great Baseball Card Debate
Russell Wilson's Baseball Card for Sale on eBay
The University of Wisconsin Compliance Office is sending out cease-and-desist emails to eBay selleres who have Russell Wilson's baseball card up for auction. While the article is a bit cynical about NCAA amateurism rules, it is not uncommon for Compliance Offices to send out these notifications companies or publications that use the photo of a current student-athlete without anyone at the Athletics Department's knowledge. Commonly, this happens when a photo is taken off of the athletics website and re-used without anyone's knowledge. This case is a bit unique because Wilson is a legitimate two sport athlete and the card company got his photo at spring training. As long as either the student or the University make an effort to stop the amateurism violation that is occurring, that will be sufficient in most cases, but it is not uncommon to see this type of reaction to a possible Bylaw 12.5.2.2 issue.
The University of Wisconsin Compliance Office is sending out cease-and-desist emails to eBay selleres who have Russell Wilson's baseball card up for auction. While the article is a bit cynical about NCAA amateurism rules, it is not uncommon for Compliance Offices to send out these notifications companies or publications that use the photo of a current student-athlete without anyone at the Athletics Department's knowledge. Commonly, this happens when a photo is taken off of the athletics website and re-used without anyone's knowledge. This case is a bit unique because Wilson is a legitimate two sport athlete and the card company got his photo at spring training. As long as either the student or the University make an effort to stop the amateurism violation that is occurring, that will be sufficient in most cases, but it is not uncommon to see this type of reaction to a possible Bylaw 12.5.2.2 issue.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Impact of the NCAA Board of Director's Changes
NCAA Legislation will Impact Initial Eligibility
The Atlanta Journal Constitution provides some interesting insight into the new initial eligibility requirements that were approved last month by the NCAA Board of Directors. According to research data put out by the NCAA, 43% of men's basketball players who initially enrolled in college for the 09/10 school year would not have met the recently approved initial eligibility standards. That same number for football was at 35% and when looking at all student-athlete's initially enrolling in 09/10 was just over 15%. While the new eligibility requirements do not bring back partial-qualifiers, students who meet the current eligibility requirements will still be allowed to receive aid and practice in their first year; the difference being that these students will automatically be eligible for four years of competition following their "academic redshirt".
Initial eligibility was not the only area addressed by the BOD, they also revised the APR standards and penalty structures. The new APR benchmark will be 930 over a four year period, an increase of five points from the previous benchmark score. The penalty structure will also be changing to reflect the renewed focus on academics.
The good news with all of this is that both the APR and the initial/transfer eligibility requirements will be phased in over the next several years. The APR benchmarks will be implemented over the next three year period, while the freshman eligibility requirements will go into effect for the Fall of 2015/16- which are this year's current HS freshman.
If you would like to get a more detailed description of all of these requirements, please plan to attend the Monthly Coaches Compliance Workshop, which will be tomorrow morning (Wednesday November 16th) at 10:30AM. The meeting will be held in the HLC Conference Room. We hope to see you there!
The Atlanta Journal Constitution provides some interesting insight into the new initial eligibility requirements that were approved last month by the NCAA Board of Directors. According to research data put out by the NCAA, 43% of men's basketball players who initially enrolled in college for the 09/10 school year would not have met the recently approved initial eligibility standards. That same number for football was at 35% and when looking at all student-athlete's initially enrolling in 09/10 was just over 15%. While the new eligibility requirements do not bring back partial-qualifiers, students who meet the current eligibility requirements will still be allowed to receive aid and practice in their first year; the difference being that these students will automatically be eligible for four years of competition following their "academic redshirt".
Initial eligibility was not the only area addressed by the BOD, they also revised the APR standards and penalty structures. The new APR benchmark will be 930 over a four year period, an increase of five points from the previous benchmark score. The penalty structure will also be changing to reflect the renewed focus on academics.
The good news with all of this is that both the APR and the initial/transfer eligibility requirements will be phased in over the next several years. The APR benchmarks will be implemented over the next three year period, while the freshman eligibility requirements will go into effect for the Fall of 2015/16- which are this year's current HS freshman.
If you would like to get a more detailed description of all of these requirements, please plan to attend the Monthly Coaches Compliance Workshop, which will be tomorrow morning (Wednesday November 16th) at 10:30AM. The meeting will be held in the HLC Conference Room. We hope to see you there!
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