The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) is weighing a new cost of attendance scholarship that would allow universities to divert more money toward student athletes.
The new scholarship would come closer to covering the actual cost of attending college, above the traditional tuition, room, board and books costs, according to Jason Lener, deputy director for athletics for Miami U. If the new scholarship were put into place, the NCAA would put a cap on the amount of money a school could pass on to the athlete. Although the NCAA is still discussing the scholarship, the cap is expected to be around $2,000, according to Lener.
“This is still in discussion mode, nothing has been decided yet,” Lener said. “If and when it does pass it will have a significant impact on financial aid.”
If passed, the scholarship would be available to athletes in all sports, according to Lener. However, the scholarship will not be mandatory for every university. Miami will most likely follow what other universities in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) choose to do with the scholarship, Lener said.
“When the decision is made, it will filter down to the conference level and the universities in each conference will decide what kind of impact this would have on the budget,” Lener said. “It’s a lot of discussion.”
While Miami plans to follow the MAC’s lead on this issue, representatives from the MAC are still not sure what to make of the new scholarship either.
“We’re going to wait to see what the NCAA says,” said Jackie Mynarski, MAC associate commissioner of institutional services.
Both Lener and Mynarski stressed that nothing can be decided until the NCAA board of directors discusses the issue again Oct. 27. However, Mynarski said she thought the cost of attendance scholarship would probably be financially feasible for schools in the MAC.
The NCAA needs to thoroughly discuss the issue because the semantics of the scholarship are extremely complicated, according to Mynarski. Part of the problem is that not all sports deal with regular scholarships in the same way.
Each sport is given a certain number of scholarships. The NCAA has determined that some of those sports, called “equivalency sports” can break up their scholarships and give athletes partial scholarships. These sports include baseball, cross country, field hockey, ice hockey, swimming and diving, soccer and track and field.
Other sports, called “head count sports,” cannot break up scholarships and can only give athletes full scholarships, according to Mynarski. These include, basketball, football and women’s volleyball. For those sports that only give full scholarships, the cost of attendance money really would go toward the cost of attendance. However, the same guarantee is not present with the sports that can break up scholarships.
“If you’re on a half scholarship, how do you get the extra $2,000 without it just going toward tuition? And when you do that you start to have problems with scholarship limits and such,” Mynarski said. “It’s complicated.”
The NCAA is also running into complications with student athletes who receive government financial aid, such as Pell Grants, and how a university would supplement the financial aid, according to Mynarski. Non-student athletes are able to receive Pell Grants and other scholarships up to the cost of attendance, while athletes are not.
“The devil is in the details [the NCAA board of directors] is working out,” Mynarski said.
Junior Lisa Werwinski, a diver on Miami’s swimming and diving team, said she can see the justification for the cost of attendance scholarship in some respects.
“To be completely honest, a full scholarship does not pay for the costs of attending college, such as traveling back home to see family members, miscellaneous expenses related to school supplies, laptops,” Werwinski said. “Many athletes are recruited to compete for schools far from their hometowns, so the expenses associated with traveling home are often a concern. For phenomenal student athletes who may come from less affluent backgrounds, everyday expenses that we take for granted are likely a serious burden.”
Werwinski said she thought if the cost of attendance scholarship were used for only its intended purpose, the underlying motives would be reasonable and well intended. However, she said she is concerned the cost of attendance scholarship is vulnerable to misuse.
“The definition of cost of attendance is ambiguous by nature and therefore subject to abuse,” Werwinski said. “Defining which expenses are covered under cost of attendance well enough to prevent the misuse of the phrase will be a large responsibility for the athletic administrative staff to take on. If this policy is implemented, I think a cap on the extra money is absolutely essential. Without this, anything and everything could begin to be classified as a cost of living expense.”
Werwinski said she thought having a full scholarship to any university was a “blessing.”
“From my experiences as a resident assistant, I have come to understand just how hard it is for some students to pay for school,” Werwinski said. “These students would kill for anything close to a full scholarship, even if it does not cover the true expenses associated with college. From this perspective, I find myself wondering how one could even venture to say that a full scholarship is not good enough. I would hate to see college athletics turn from athletes who love the sports they play to athletes who are simply playing for money and other benefits.”
While nothing is certain about the scholarship yet, Lener said he hopes Miami can do what is best for the student athletes.
“I think anytime you’re given the opportunity to provide benefits we’re always looking out for the best interests of the athletes,” Lener said. “We never want to shortchange our students.”