Virginia Tech on Thursday announced its “Pylons of Promise” program set to begin during the '15-16 academic year, which "most prominently assures" student-athletes, a "cost-of-attendance stipend above the traditional grant-in-aid that covers tuition, fees, room, board and books," according to David Teel of the Hampton Roads DAILY PRESS. VT estimates the stipend will be "approximately $2,500 per full scholarship." With 195 student-athletes on full scholarship and 196 on partials, the VT athletic department believes its annual cost "will range from $850,000 to $950,000." VT athletics in '13-14 reported $73.02 million in expenses. A full-scholarship athlete "will receive the full stipend," while a half-scholarship athlete "will receive half." The VT financial aid office has "yet to calculate the 2015-16 cost-of-attendance and based the $2,500 on past numbers." Other ACC schools "are sure to follow -- anything less would be a recruiting liability" (DAILYPRESS.com, 1/22). In Richmond, John O'Connor reports VCU and Richmond will "add cost-of-attendance stipends to scholarships offered in men’s and women’s basketball." VCU AD Ed McLaughlin said that it is the school's "intention to provide the cost-of-attendance stipend through all of the Rams’ sports programs, 'but the timing in which we do it is still to be determined'" (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 1/23).
TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT: North Dakota State AD Matt Larsen on Wednesday was a guest on KFGO-AM's "Mike McFeely Show" and said that the FCS school will "look at" paying its athletes the cost-of-attendance stipend. McFeely noted D-I schools outside the Power Five conferences "have the choice to pay cost of attendance and can choose which sports to include." Larsen said that many schools are "expected to fund stipends for football, men's basketball and women's basketball." He added that it is a "matter of recruiting, particularly for football." McFeely noted NDSU regularly recruits "against programs in the lower tier of FBS." Larsen said that those conferences are "leaning toward implementing cost of attendance for their football programs." Larsen: "If you put us in this same situation next year and all of the sudden those schools are offering cost of attendance and North Dakota State isn't ... I'd like to think we still have enough to offer from a football program, academically, and all those things to attract those kids, but I think the chances become slimmer and slimmer moving down the road" (KFGO.com, 1/21).
