Everyone knew there was a new day dawning for collegiate athletics, thanks to autonomy for Power Five conferences and the O’Bannon lawsuit and the like. Part of the change called for increased benefits for all student-athletes in elite conferences specifically, including football players.
Tuesday, one university put a price tag on that change.
At a Big 12 sports forum yesterday, Texas athletic director Steve Patterson revealed that his university will soon begin paying its student-athletes in every sport, male and female. UT expects to spend $6 million annually on the endeavor, which works out to roughly $10,000 per athlete per year.
The Dallas Morning News writes that "[t]he money will cover college expenses that aren’t covered by a traditional full scholarship and give each player $5,000 in compensation for the university’s use of his image.” The latter is in connection to the O’Bannon suit.
While an athletic department like Texas, the most profitable in the country, can merely reach into its couches to cover the added expense, there are others at the forum who intimated that cuts in sports could be one casualty of the payments.
“If we begin to [further] remunerate the participants, that’s going to break that model,” UT women’s sports athletic director Chris Plonsky warned.
“We’re in for a period of dynamic change,” said former Maryland basketball All-American and U.S. Representative Tom McMillen. “The system has to change. The money needs to be handled differently.”
Texas, incidentally, becomes the first school to announce specific payments to student-athletes. It had previously been thought that, with the autonomy legislation, athletes would receive an additional $2,000 to $5,000 to cover the true cost of attendance.
Just when UT will begin paying the five-figure sum is unclear.
(Tip O’ the Cap: our very own Zach Barnett, over at his other job at FootballScoop.com)
UPDATED 4:28 p.m. ET: And now we have a little more clarity to the lack of a timeline.
Regarding the out-of-control Steve Patterson story: He said UT would pay $10K stipends ONLY IF the NCAA loses all of its court appeals.
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) October 22, 2014
UT has no plans to pay stipends now. People need to settle down.
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) October 22, 2014
To further clarify, the $5,000 “image use” to which the Morning News alluded would be placed in a trust fund. Also, UT and other schools would wait until autonomy is officially approved in January.
Additionally, the $5,000/$5,000 split, should the O’Bannon suit be successful for the plaintiffs, is expected to be a similar range for other Power Five schools.