Athletes would get stipend under C-USA proposal

[Harry]

Conference USA's presidents and athletic directors unanimously endorsed providing a stipend for full-scholarship athletes during a two-day retreat that ended Thursday in Irving, Texas.

The issue of providing athletes with a stipend of about $2,000 per year to help pay for living expenses not provided in traditional scholarships is one of several that has led the major conferences to consider forming a new NCAA division.

ODU athletic director Wood Selig said traditional scholarships pay for tuition, room, board and books. They do not pay for clothing, expenses for athletes to travel home during the holidays or for necessary items such as toothpaste and razors. Selig estimates those additional costs add up to about $2,000 at ODU.

Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/athletes-would-get-stipend-under-cusa-proposal

[laxtonto]

Full cost of tuition stipends is what is one of the terms that is going to force teams to stay in D3 or move to D4. If you read the release it states it is for "all athletes" not football only. All this does is put the proposal on the table to keep the CUSA in the running to remain a potential D4 division. It does not wed CUSA to these ideas because technically it is not allowed in the FBS ranks but it does provide the image that CUSA wants to be in the D4 ranks and that CUSA is progressive enough to think this is needed for the student athletes. I think the thing that some people don't realize is that this increase, though not massive, is enough to already have some Power conference teams concerned, much less the trickle down to the other leagues.

Right now if a school maxes out on all possible scholarships for all sports (so Full costs for all 464.3 M and W sports for all Fall, Spring and Summer terms) we are talking about right around 2.8M additional expenses added to the AD budget.I would guess UNT would probably be on the hook for 1 -2 M. I am not sure that all the MAC, AAC or SunBelt schools will unanimously vote to pass this type of resolution at the conference level. Many of the private schools will have to really consider how far down this rabbit hole they want to go with their generally smaller fanbases and how this impacts their AD budget. Many of the MAC schools will more than likely be opposed due to small attendance numbers. Now combine the full cost of tuition with the potential increases in staff levels and funding recruiting travel for parents and players and that number could easily jump to 5 or 10 or even 20M in additional expenses. That is where the issue really starts and until there is a legit # for the payouts for all of the D4 playoffs, no one will really know what is going to happen.

I stated this when UNT was moving up to CUSA that the movehad to be made out of necessity to preserve both the image and actuality of playing at the highest levels of college athletics. Now schools and whole conferences are being faced with an bigger financial and philosophical issue of moving up. Is it better to be the bastard child "Washington Generals" style conference within D4 initially or to remain in D3? That is going to be the real question to be answered and I am not sure how many of the smaller conferences will view it.