NCAA President Mark Emmert yesterday told the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics that he "supported a proposal that would let conferences increase grants to athletes by about $2,000, a move that critics say would escalate the financial disparity in college sports," according to Adam Himmelsbach of the N.Y. TIMES. The funding "would be in addition to tuition, room, board, books and other expenses that are already covered by athletic scholarships." The increase is "not considered payment for participation." Emmert said that it would instead "help cover costs that student-athletes are unable to offset, because most do not have time to work part-time jobs." He added that a "final plan would be presented to the NCAA's board of directors by the end of the week." If it is approved, individual conferences "will have the option of adopting the policy." But universities that "operate outside the lucrative Bowl Championship Series conferences could struggle to fund this change, and the financial gap between teams in the major conferences and those outside could become even larger." Boise State President Robert Kustra said, "There’s already a great divide between larger conferences and the smaller conferences, and this is just going to exacerbate the gap between the haves and have-nots." Univ. of North Carolina System President Thomas Ross: "It does create an edge for the big guys" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/25). LSU President Michael Martin argued that the extra $2,000 "would fuel growing resentment over the millions being spent on college sports during a time of financial austerity." Martin: "I’ve got 1,400 faculty who’d love to have $2,000 more a year." Meanwhile, Emmert yesterday also said that he would urge the NCAA BOD this week to "step up the timetable for forcing athletic programs to meet minimum academic standards to be eligible to participate in the postseason." Emmert said that he "will push for enacting the new standards, which were tentatively agreed upon in August, as early as next season’s NCAA basketball tournaments and that they be extended to bowl game participation" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/25).
DIFFERENT APPROACH: USA TODAY's Steve Wieberg noted a group of college administrators in a letter to Emmert in advance of the NCAA BOD meetings this week "calls for a series of radical steps that, among other things, would hand over serious infractions cases to an outside agency and tie revenue sharing to the academic success of a school's athletes." The letter also asks if it is time to "treat student-athletes in 'big-time' football differently from athletes in other sports." The NCAA's BOD Thursday is "expected to authorize schools to bump up the value of scholarships by as much as $2,000 and offer four-year rather than only one-year scholarships." The BOD "already has approved an academic qualifier for teams in the NCAA basketball tournament and other championships, and in the works are proposals to heighten attention on serious rules violators." The group of nine administrators in the letter to Emmert said that it "doubts those measures will prove adequate." Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby: "We can't manage football and basketball programs with the same rules we (use to) manage golf and tennis programs. It just doesn't work. We're dealing with a different student-athlete population. We're dealing with different problems, different issues" (USATODAY.com, 10/24).
PLAYERS' PERSPECTIVE: YAHOO SPORTS' Dan Wetzel noted the National College Players Association has gathered "more than 300 signatures from athletes" from Arizona, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Purdue and UCLA who have "put their name to a petition asking the NCAA to set aside some of the additional $784 million in new television deals to further benefit players" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/24). Georgia Tech DE Denzel McCoy said, "I really want to voice my opinions. The things we go through, the hours we put in, what our bodies go through, we deserve some sort of (results). College football is a billion dollar industry." The idea is "opposed by Emmert and others who cite the amateurism ideal as the backbone of college sports." However, UCLA K Jeff Locke is adamant that players "must also benefit from the skyrocketing profits schools now see from renegotiated television deals" (ESPN.com, 10/24).
