When the NCAA last year granted the five Division I “power” conferences increased autonomy, allowing them to set their own rules about such things as stipends for scholarship athletes, the imminent challenges for the other leagues — including the Mountain West — were obvious.
Match the power conference approach.
Or see the already obvious competitive gap widen between the “power five” and “group of five” conferences, most notably in football.
In January, the schools in the power five — including Colorado and the Pac-12 — voted 79-1 to implement “cost of attendance” stipends for scholarship athletes. Colorado athletic director Rick George recently estimated that the annual payment to CU athletes on full rides would be $2,600 to $3,200, depending on whether they’re from Colorado or out of state.
In the “group of five” Mountain West, Boise State took the lead, saying it would keep up with the power conferences. Wyoming and Colorado State recently announced they would too.
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New Rams AD Joe Parker said last week that CSU would implement stipends ranging from $2,400 to $3,100 annually for those on full scholarships. (The figures are based on “cost of attendance” estimates at each school, with variances based on local conditions.)
That wasn’t automatic.
That is stepping up, big time.
CSU has had four high NFL draft choices the past two seasons – center Weston Richburg, tight end Crockett Gillmore, quarterback Garrett Grayson and offensive tackle Ty Sambrailo. None of the four was zealously recruited by power conference schools, and the path they took was rewarding at just about every level. But if the power conferences offered stipends and the group of five didn’t, it would be hard to make a credible case to prospects on that recruiting bubble that heading to the Mountain West is not just acceptable, but even desirable.
In-state, CU — inferior to the Rams on the field last season — from here on would have won every head-to-head recruiting battle. In future years, including through the remainder of the Rocky Mountain Showdown rivalry, even a bad Pac-12 program would hammer any Mountain West team … including the Rams. The imminent groundbreaking on a new on-campus stadium, financed with revenue bonds, heightens the financial pressures for CSU.
As this all falls into place, the less revolutionary it seems.
I was among those who initially overreacted to the “autonomy” vote. Part of it was a contrarian rejection of the frequently voiced view that it was about time these poor, exploited college athletes finally were going to be paid.
They always have been paid. That payment has become increasingly lucrative as the cost of higher education skyrockets beyond the rate of inflation. That payment, of course, is called “a scholarship.”
Limitations on athletes’ employment changed the picture, including ruling out boosters handing out cushy “jobs” to players who did little or no work. Selling complimentary tickets, whether on their own or with assistant coaches acting as the brokers, another “harmless” tradition of lining athletes’ pockets in the halcyon days, also was legislated away under tightened NCAA standards.
So, yes, this is walking-around money, provided across the board to all scholarship athletes, men and women, in revenue and nonrevenue sports alike, in proportion to their scholarship percentages.
That’s fair.
It would be naive to think that these modest stipends will eliminate excesses, whether in the recruiting process or after players arrive on campus. But it also eliminates some of the “they’re exploited” rationalization, and that’s progress.
Terry Frei: tfrei@ or TFrei
