The big news in the Big South today is Liberty will offer "full cost of attendance" to all its scholarship athletes (all sports) beginning next year. Essentially a 2K bonus on top of full scholarships.

We'll see how the rest of the Big South reacts to this.

Anyone know the Southern Conference's stance on FCOA? Does the league have a rule or do they leave it up to the schools? If permitted, is it for certain sports or all?

(04-14-2015 09:47 PM)OrangeCamel Wrote:  The big news in the Big South today is Liberty will offer "full cost of attendance" to all its scholarship athletes (all sports) beginning next year. Essentially a 2K bonus on top of full scholarships.

We'll see how the rest of the Big South reacts to this.

Anyone know the Southern Conference's stance on FCOA? Does the league have a rule or do they leave it up to the schools? If permitted, is it for certain sports or all?

This was just passed at the NCAA convention this past January. Seems it offers a stipend of $2,000 to $4,000 per year on top of the athletic scholarship. My guess is that this will be on conferences' agenda for their Spring, 2015 meetings. You ask some good questions. If Liberty has decided to do this, will they need the approval of the Big South before implementing it? Seems to me they would need the approval of their conference for obvious reasons. Of course the Power Five conferences will implement this since it came from them as a result of a restructured NCAA. Will this ultimately result in another conferences shake up, especially among those non-Power Five Division I schools?

Can SoCon schools do this? Perhaps for selected sports to hold down costs? Can schools have different levels of athletic aid for different sports now? Seems this could be a rather significant recruiting advantage to give a kid two to four grand per year walk-around money.

(04-16-2015 09:10 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  Can SoCon schools do this? Perhaps for selected sports to hold down costs? Can schools have different levels of athletic aid for different sports now? Seems this could be a rather significant recruiting advantage to give a kid two to four grand per year walk-around money.

Some conferences have elected to only give the stipend to men's and women's basketball players. The A10 is doing that.

(06-18-2015 09:28 AM)Clueless Economist Wrote:  

(04-16-2015 09:10 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  Can SoCon schools do this? Perhaps for selected sports to hold down costs? Can schools have different levels of athletic aid for different sports now? Seems this could be a rather significant recruiting advantage to give a kid two to four grand per year walk-around money.

Some conferences have elected to only give the stipend to men's and women's basketball players. The A10 is doing that.

Wonder how the football players, for example, will view this at those A-10 schools that offer FCS scholarships, not to mention all the other athletes not included? Seems this could lead to some internal problems at schools, maybe legal challenges. Hey, if I'm a Richmond football player, for example, I could have some concerns if I see my basketball buddy getting a monthly check for cash in his/ her pocket. After all, I'm working my butt off for my scholarship as well -- maybe more so.

Has SoCon addressed this issue yet? Don't know.

Interesting take from Montana on this:

http://missoulian.com/sports/college/mon...97515.html

I love de-regulatory freefalls and the windfalls they create. Additional compensation for living expenses is something I fully support - if done in the correct ways. The recruiting advantages and selective dealings spinning out are troublesome, though. And then there's the institutional concerns. We've got coaches asking financial aid offices to up the stated COA and so on. It's amazing how expensive Auburn suddenly became, for example!

I wrote two research papers on the subject (including legal challenges to amateurism and lack of pay) this past semester for Sports Finance and Legal Issues in Sports Master's courses at ETSU. NCAA's notion of amateurism is outdated and undignified, IMO. But schools and the NCAA alike need to find clear boundaries soon before certain institutions make a mockery of this progress.

I would suspect it will be a while before ETSU begins to implement any COA giving, unless others in the conference start to do so and they have to also comply to compete for recruits. SoCon teams split scholarships, give partials, and ultimately offer very few true "full" schollys in football. Logistically, also trying to split COA monies would be a nightmare...if they could do it at all.