The NCAA will distribute $18.9M to D-I schools this year to "help them pay for cost-of-attendance-based scholarships, additional food that can be made available to athletes or various academic projects," according to Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY. NCAA CFO Kathleen McNeely said that each of the nearly 350 D-I schools "will get an equal share of the money, meaning the schools will receive about $55,000 apiece." McNeely said that this pool of money "will be in addition" to the more than $500M the NCAA "now annually distributes" to D-I schools and conferences. Berkowitz noted it will begin with the NCAA's FY '15-16, which starts Sept. 1, and "in the future will receive the annual inflationary increases that the NCAA’s other revenue distribution pools receive." McNeely said that the fund is "being financed through cuts elsewhere in the association’s operating budget and through reallocation of money that had been going to an NCAA endowment fund" that had grown to more than $385M as of the end of the NCAA’s FY '14 and "has been capped for now." Berkowitz noted while an additional $55,000 per school "might not sound like much, when placed in the context of additional funding for athletes’ cost of attendance, it could provide significant help for schools with relatively modest athletics budgets" (USATODAY.com, 7/20).
WHO'S GIVING WHAT? In Lubbock, Don Williams reported Texas Tech's "additional stipend" for the '15-16 school year "will be $4,820, which consists of $2,300 for transportation, $2,120 for personal and miscellaneous expenses and $400 for academic supplies." The school's stipend "will be among the largest among programs in the high-profile conferences." The $2,300 "was calculated to include the average student’s cost of getting to Lubbock for the fall semester, going home at mid-term, returning in January and going home again at the end of the spring semester." Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt and Assistant Dir of Financial Aid Ben Montecillo both noted that more than 50% of the school's student body "comes from more than 300 miles away" (LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 7/19). Meanwhile, LSU Senior Associate AD and Senior Woman Administrator Miriam Segar said that the school is "distributing $3,200 a year (or $1,600 a semester) for those living on campus and about $3,800 for athletes living off campus." In Baton Rouge, Ross Dellenger notes that money "will be added to the room-and-board allowances regularly distributed to athletes of head-count sports like football and basketball that give full scholarships." Segar added that the money "will be added to the scholarship pool of equivalency sports and will be dispersed to athletes by the head coach" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 7/21).
GRIN & BEAR IT: ESPN.com's Hale & Adelson noted ACC Commissioner John Swofford during his address at the conference's media days yesterday "praised the new cost-of-attendance plan but said it will be more expensive for schools, and some problems -- particularly those due to differences in cost-of-attendance figures between schools -- will still need to be ironed out." Swofford said, "We're going to need to live with this for a couple years before we see whether those differences impact decisions recruits are making" (ESPN.com, 7/20).
