FIU student-athletes may earn $2,000 after new NCAA legislation

By: Igor Mello / Asst. Sports Editor    

Depending on what the University chooses to do, student-athletes may be walking around with a little more money in their pockets.

When the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a package of sweeping changes, they placed the ball on the Sun Belt Conference’s side of the court, giving major conferences to chance approve or afford a possible $2,000 stipend given to student athletes.

Now the Sun Belt has put the ball on FIU’s side of the court.

On Nov. 2, just over a week after the NCAA passed their legislation, the Sun Belt Conference became one of the first non-automatic qualifying conferences to give the nod to its Universities to embrace these changes.

In an unanimous vote, Sun Belt Conference chief executive officers and athletic directors have agreed to give each institution the option of determining how much cost of attendance and multi-year scholarships will be allocated to their student-athletes.

“Athletically, academically and financially the Sun Belt Conference is stronger than it has ever been. Our leadership is committed to building upon that foundation,” said Troy University Chancellor and Sun Belt Executive Committee President Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr. “We believe the new NCAA regulations will benefit student athletes and we encourage each of our member institutions to determine its level of participation. Such discretion will ensure that our athletic programs will continue to recruit and compete at a high level.”

If FIU approves these changes, the university will have the opportunity to award scholarships for multiple years, imposing higher academic standards on future recruits.

Under the current system, athletic scholarships are renewed annually and can be dropped for any reason. If the university accepts, they could award scholarships for the student athlete’s entire collegiate career, losing the power to revoke it based solely on their on-field performance. However, scholarships could still be pulled for academic misconduct, low grades, or other forms of inappropriate behavior.

“This presents us with another opportunity to enhance the well-being of our student-athletes by increasing our economic support to help them address the miscellaneous expenses they are faced with,” said Dr. Dean Lee, Arkansas State Director of Athletics and Sun Belt Executive Committee Representative for Athletics Directors

Because of Title IX laws, schools must infer the cost of additional funding and it will have to be allocated evenly to men’s and women’s athletes.

The NCAA has also approved raising the four-year Academic Progress Rate score from 900 to 930. If any a program fails to reach that cut-line, then they will be ineligible for postseason play. A four-year plan has been approved to add in the new requirements.

The APR is a metric created by the NCAA to calculate the success of collegiate athletic teams in moving student athletes towards graduation.

Mario Cristobal, head coach of the football team, inherited one of the worst APR scores in the nation when he took over in 2007. Now his team has an APR score of 927 (multi-year rate of 936) as of 2010.

“I know the APR inside and out because upon arrival, a week after I arrived here, they told me that we were going to lose 30 scholarships…trust me when I say I know what that means top to bottom,” said Cristobal, who wants more support academically from the NCAA. “If they want higher grades, maybe we need more academic support. Educational seminars –whatever it may be– teaching methods, certain classes, whatever it may be because if we’re demanding so much of these young men in these programs we certainly want to be able to afford them the opportunity to achieve.”

If a program does not hit a score of at least 930 by 2014-2015 season, not only would they be ineligible for postseason, they could face additional penalties such as reductions in practice time and game limits, coaches suspensions, scholarship reductions and restricted NCAA membership.

Now that the football team has no longer the lowest APR score on campus, the only sport currently in danger of missing out on postseason play is the men’s basketball team. Isiah Thomas’ team recorded an APR of 900 (multi-year score of 910), the first time that his team has recorded a multi-year score over 900.

“The APR needs to be connected to the graduation rate…The fact that we graduated 13 out of 15 students in my last two years here, counting walk-ons, that says a lot, but that doesn’t really help your APR,” Thomas said. “I’m more concerned with graduating students than I am with the APR.”

According to Thomas, the head coach thinks that the NCAA is taking a step in the right direction.

“I’m not an NCAA basher because there are a lot of things that they do right and somethings that they do wrong so let’s give them credit for at least attempting and trying.”imposing higher academic standards on future recruits.

Under the current system, athletic scholarships are renewed annually and can be dropped for any reason. If the University accepts, they could award scholarships for the student athlete’s entire collegiate career, losing the power to revoke it based solely on their on-field performance. However, scholarships could still be pulled for academic misconduct, low grades or other forms of inappropriate behavior.

“This presents us with another opportunity to enhance the well-being of our student-athletes by increasing our economic support to help them address the miscellaneous expenses they are faced with,” said Dr. Dean Lee, Arkansas State Director of Athletics and Sun Belt Executive Committee Representative for Athletics’ Directors.

Because of Title IX laws, schools must infer the cost of additional funding and will have to be allocated evenly to men’s and women’s athletes.

The NCAA has also approved raising the four-year Academic Progress Report score from 900 to 930. If any a program fails to reach that cut-line, then they will be ineligible for postseason play. A four-year plan has been approved to add in the new requirements.

The APR is a metric created by the NCAA to calculate the success of collegiate athletic teams in moving student athletes towards graduation.

Mario Cristobal, head coach of the football team, inherited one of the worst APR scores in the nation when he took over in 2007. Now his team has an APR score of 927 (multi-year rate of 936) as of 2010.

“I know the APR inside and out because upon arrival, a week after I arrived here, they told me that we were going to lose 30 scholarships…trust me when I say I know what that means top to bottom,” said Cristobal, who wants more support academically from the NCAA.

“If they want higher grades, maybe we need more academic support. Educational seminars –whatever it may be– teaching methods, certain classes, whatever it may be, because if we’re demanding so much of these young men in these programs we certainly want to be able to afford them the opportunity to achieve.”

If a program does not hit a score of at least 930 by 2014-2015 season, not only will they be ineligible for postseason, they could face additional penalties, such as reductions in practice time and game limits, coach suspensions, scholarship reductions and restricted NCAA membership.

Now that the football team has no longer the lowest APR score on campus, the only sport currently in danger of missing out on postseason play is the men’s basketball team. Isiah Thomas’ team recorded an APR of 900 (multi-year score of 910), the first time that his team has recorded a multi-year score over 900.

“The APR needs to be connected to the graduation rate…The fact that we graduated 13 out of 15 students in my last two years here, counting walk-ons, that says a lot, but that doesn’t really help your APR,” Thomas said. “I’m more concerned with graduating students than I am with the APR.”

According to Thomas, the NCAA is taking a step in the right direction, but there’s still work to be done. “I’m not an NCAA basher because there are a lot of things that they do right and somethings that they do wrong, so let’s give them credit for at least attempting and trying.”