FORT COLLINS — The NCAA’s watchful eye doesn’t blink when it comes to college football players receiving financial benefits outside the cost of a scholarship. That is, unless you’re headed to a bowl game.
Thousands of student athletes across the rosters of 78 bowl-eligible teams this postseason will accept gifts ranging from jewelry, coolers and electronics to furniture as a reward for a year well done. CSU football players descended upon Best Buy with $350 shopping sprees Tuesday morning, coach Mike Bobo said, and just last week the Rams selected any number of different prize options in an event held at the on-campus stadium.
The long-standing tradition is a brief pause from NCAA protocol that typically penalizes programs for the most minor infractions.
Dating to December 2015, CSU has self-reported 23 violations to the NCAA, according to information provided in an open-records request to The Denver Post, and included among them are a few less-than-scandalous mistakes:
- Two student athletes were provided with sideline access outside the student section during a football game.
- An assistant coach paid for meals of a prospective student athlete and his father during an unofficial visit.
- One student athlete received three off-campus stipend check amounts instead of the on-campus amount.
But perks typically better than those listed are just fine should your football team win six or more games. The incongruity isn’t lost on redshirt seniors such as CSU offensive lineman Zach Golditch, who has picked out bowl gifts in five consecutive seasons, while also understanding the NCAA regularly nears annual revenue of almost $1 billion.
“We’re getting a free education, but at the same point the stuff that we’re doing is worth something,” Golditch said. “If the school is going to benefit from going to a bowl, why not share a little bit of the wealth? I think itap great, because then those guys that aren’t playing realize they were a part of a successful season as well.”
For CSU, the gift selection process hasn’t varied much through the years with the Rams playing in bowls operated by ESPN events with similar gift options four out of the last five postseasons. Golditch says his favorite arrived from the 2014 Las Vegas Bowl — a recliner with a USB plug-in feature.
“I got an Xbox,” CSU offensive lineman Jake Bennett said, and then he grinned. “Itap kind of ruined my life.”
When CSU coach Mike Bobo was quarterbacking Georgia in the 1990s, bowls provided gifts on a much more limited scale. Back then, he could expect a hat, a sweatsuit and a football, and that was about it. But even student athletes from an older generation can still appreciate the NCAA letting its guard down once a year to compensate players after the grind of a long season.
“I think itap great the NCAA allows us to reward guys,” Bobo said.
Christmas comes early
A look at the New Mexico Bowl gifts offered to Colorado State Rams football players:
Gift suite (selection of various prizes based on a five-point value system)
Oakley sunglasses
Oakley 5-Speed backpack
LiT tumbler
Beanie
Gildan stadium blanket
Cap
Fidget spinner