NCAA Considering New Scholarship Model

An NCAA proposal to increase student athlete grants by $2,000 won president Mark Emmert’s seal of approval today.

Emmert said he not only supports the proposal to disburse more substantial multiyear grants instead of the current model of year-to-year scholarships, but plans to convince the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to finalize it later this week.

“I’ll be asking the board to support the proposal to allow conferences – not mandate anyone, but allow conferences, not individual institutions – to increase the value of an athletic grant in aid to more closely approach the full cost of attendance,” Emmert told the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics today.

The NCAA’s current athletic scholarships have followed the same model for 40 years, covering tuition, student fees, room, board and supplies. However, this fails to take into consideration the additional living costs college students face. With student athletes dividing their time between classroom and team responsibilities, Emmert explained that many have limited opportunities to hold jobs.

Athletes are also launching their own solutions. More than 300 football and men’s basketball players from Arizona, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Purdue and UCLA signed a petition last week asking the NCAA to set aside a portion of TV sports revenue for scholarships. The Big Ten currently rakes in an estimated $232 million a year from notoriously lucrative television contracts with ESPN/ABC, CBS and the Big Ten Network, according to a Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics report.

Copies of the petition were released today by the Associated Press, and state the players’ demand that the NCAA act “with integrity.”