The College Football Playoff and the NCAA yesterday announced that parents or legal guardians attending Monday's championship game between Ohio State and Oregon at AT&T Stadium "will be reimbursed $1,250 each, with a maximum of $2,500 per family," according to Tim May of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. OSU coach Urban Meyer credited school VP & AD Gene Smith for "getting the ball rolling." Smith this week "has made calls" to Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany and Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott, "plus NCAA officials." But Smith said that it was Meyer’s "persistence in keeping the idea alive ... that helped push it through." Several parents of OSU players "had been pushing for assistance for weeks," and Meyer was "adamant about helping the parents" as soon as OSU advanced to the CFP championship game. He even "mentioned it in his postgame comments." The NCAA also announced that, "families of athletes in the Final Four games of the NCAA’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be reimbursed $3,000, with $1,000 added for the teams that reach the championship games." Smith said that he could "see the program evolving to where schools get more involved with parents’ travel plans and arranging hotel accommodations” (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 1/7). ESPN.com's Heather Dinich noted the NCAA allows for the CFP "to provide up to $3,000 in travel expenses for families," but the reimbursement "will be capped at $1,250 per parent or guardian." CFP Exec Dir Bill Hancock said, "The intent was to do what was allowable. We thought the NCAA limit would be closer to $2,500 and we checked with the people at Oregon about the likely costs. Now that we know the NCAA limit, I'm sure the management committee and board of managers will look at that issue as we all continue to work through the details" (ESPN.com, 1/6).
MORE TO COME? ESPN.com's Brian Bennett noted Smith hopes a permanent NCAA rule change can be presented to the NCAA BOD next October and "be in place for the semifinals and championship game next season." Smith: "We believe this is something we should have addressed (before the first playoff games). But we didn't, so we're doing it now." He added that he would "like to see a model for players' families to receive a stipend from the playoff, not from individual schools." Bennett noted host sites for the semifinal and title game "could have hotels reserved for families only." Smith: "I really don't see the dollars as an issue. That's why we should do it." He added that he is "concerned that the high costs of travel could lead to families taking impermissible benefits to see their sons play." Smith: "We're worried about agents entering those decisions" (ESPN.com, 1/6).
SIGN OF THE TIMES: The AP's Ralph Russo wrote at a time when the leaders of college athletics are "trying to steer more of the millions in growing revenues generated by big-time sports toward the athletes themselves, this is another example of the NCAA acknowledging that more can be done." NCAA Exec VP/Championships & Alliances Mark Lewis said that he has been looking at ways to "help parents and guardians of college athletes cover travel costs to the basketball championship" since he joined the organization in '12. He added that a discussion with Smith "prompted a review of the NCAA bylaws to try to find a way to help pay for family members to travel to playoff games." What Smith and Lewis "found in the rules was as long as the bill was being footed by the organizing body of the event and not schools, a waiver could be granted allowing for family members' travel expenses to be reimbursed" (AP, 1/6). In N.Y., Marc Tracy writes the move is the "latest concession by the NCAA in its running dispute with critics who contend that football and basketball players competing at the highest levels of college athletics deserve a bigger share of the growing profits." It also is "notable in that the NCAA, confronted with a call for change, responded without consulting its membership and assumed costs to benefit players" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/7). YAHOO SPORTS' Pat Forde wrote, "After this news Tuesday, it can be said: the NCAA has a heart. And a brain." The NCAA also "has speed." An organization that "often seemed to possess the alacrity of a banana slug showed some blue-chip reflexes and elite-level reaction time" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/6). In Orlando, Matt Murschel writes this is a move that is "nothing short of a ‘duh’ moment." But it is "amazing that it took this long" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 1/7).
PANDORA'S BOX: In DC, Adam Kilgore notes the travel expense payments "create thorny questions for the NCAA about parents traveling to lower-profile championships." Kilgore: "Will parents traveling to college hockey’s Frozen Four receive money? The College World Series? What about those parents of champion field hockey or softball?" NCAA PR & Media Relations Dir Stacey Osburn in an e-mail wrote, “The pilot program begins with providing more support for the families of student-athletes competing in the Final Fours and College Football Playoff championship. NCAA member schools and conferences also can adopt new rules to provide these family travel expenses on a permanent basis or for other championships" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/7).
