NCAA: College football players receive pennies on the dollar compared to the money they bring into our member institutions. I think we’ve exhausted every means of squeezing money out of them.
RAGIN’ CAJUNS: Hold my beer...
According to the Baton Rouge Advocate, Louisiana head football coach Billy Napier has instituted a new rule, effective at the beginning of this school year, that requires “encourages” all scholarship players to donate at least $50 to the Ragin’ Cajun Athletic Foundation (RCAF). The donations will be optional for walk-on players.
“That’s probably a little bit unheard of and a little bit unique, but I think this is a place where that would be appreciated,” Napier said according to the Advocate. “I think it’s part of the type of program that we want to have. We want our players to be educated and understand the benefits that come with being a student-athlete and that is not something that should be taken lightly — the effort and time and investment that the people that support athletes at UL have put in into this program.”
So, what happens if a player balks at making the donation? Will he be stripped of his scholarship? How can any football program in good conscience require “encourage” football players who have no right to their name/image/likeness subtly require them to pay to play?
CFT has reached out to the NCAA for comment on the bizarre and wholly inappropriate stipulation, which will certainly do nothing but help Napier and his coaching staff on the recruiting trail.
As an aside, and apropos of nothing, the Lafayette Daily Advertiser wrote in July of this year that “Napier’s current contract went into effect on Jan. 1, 2018, and was valued at $756,960 guaranteed in the first year of the deal, including a $500,000 contingent premium benefit funded by the Ragin’ Cajun Athletic Foundation.”
So, yeah, there’s that.