With just about every other power structure at educational institutions subordinate to them, football coaches at major programs now can turn their sights to financial aid offices.
The so-called Power Five conferences are now allowing athletic scholarships that pay the “full cost of attendance” beyond tuition, room, board and books. In effect, schools can provide a cash stipend for athletes based on a formula to determine need-based aid for all students.
Schools have wide latitude to create that formula. You can see where this is going. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported athletics officials from several programs “have had conversations with campus admissions and financial-aid officials about raising their institutions’ cost-of-attendance figures.”
The Power Five approved the rule change in January but the initial impact has become clearer as schools release their COA for the 2015-16. Some universities have suddenly discovered that it costs a lot more for their students to go to school.
At Georgia, for example, an increase in the cost of attendance means the stipend available to athletes from out of state is $3,746 this school year. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, UGA’s cost of attendance beyond tuition and such was $2,598 in 2014-15, $2,564 in 2013-14 and $2,540 in 2012-13.
Coach Mark Richt has expressed alarm about UGA falling behind its SEC peers in COA but that bump improved its stipend from 13th highest to ninth in the SEC. The cost of living must really be getting out of hand in Athens.
At least this is the rare rule change that will benefit some athletes. The coalition of schools sold it as part of their mission to take care of student-athletes by closing the gap between scholarships and the actual costs of going to college. The truth is public and legal pressure prompted the richest conferences to throw athletes a few more crumbs.
The NCAA last year lost a federal antitrust lawsuit regarding the commercial use of its athletes’ images (the case is on appeal). Even self-interested fans are starting to notice that athletes are the only participants who have their compensation capped as revenues skyrocket.
This rule change is a baby step toward the inevitable day when schools will have to compete for athletes on a free (well, freer) market. No surprise it was met with resistance from coaches.
At the SEC spring meetings, Georgia joined Kentucky in calling for rules that require greater transparency from schools in how they calculate the cost of attendance. It’s probably a coincidence that Georgia and Kentucky rank in the bottom half of the SEC in cost of attendance.
Alabama coach Nick Saban has called for a cap on the stipends. Saban said the new rule goes “against all the things that we’ve tried to do in the NCAA in terms of having parity for players” with compensation.
Saban, who made $7 million last season, did not suggest standardized salaries for coaches to maintain parity.
But credit Saban for not objecting to increasing compensation for athletes over lack of funding. That would have been awkward, considering the SEC announced that its 14 member schools would share about $310 million in revenue. That’s up nearly 90 percent from 2009, with more to come after the launch of the SEC Network.
Schools have a lot of leeway in how they can calculate the cost of attendance. The National Association of Financial Aid Administrators offers some best practices. But the U.S. Department of Education’s guide for college financial aid professionals states: “The law specifies the types of costs that are included in the cost of attendance, but you must determine the appropriate amount to include for each category for students at your school.”
The best part about the new COA rule is the education vs. athletics conflict it creates. Financial aid officers want to keep the figure low to avoid sticker shock for paying students and for budgetary reasons. Football and basketball coaches want it higher so they can offer bigger stipends to recruits.
I know who I’ve got my money on to eventually win that battle.
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