Full Cost Scholarship, the Biggest Threat to College Sports as We Now Know It

According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Big 10 is studying a proposal to up football scholarships from their current level to cover the full cost of attendance.  Now, athletic scholarships cover tuition, room and board and books.  They do not cover other day-to-day living expenses such as clothing, laundry and transportation.  The Ohio State proposal would change all of that.

The full cost of attendance is determined by the Federal Government for the purposes of obtaining Title IV financial aid and is not set by the school at all.  Therefore, one should not be able to justify giving these kids a Corvette.  But still, more money opens up more potential for abuse.  Where schools like Ohio State believe that it will have the opposite affect.  There is also the debate about whether this is pay for college athletics, but I do not believe that it is. 

The effects would reach beyond the potential for additional NCAA violations.  Schools with big TV contracts would have little problem in coming up with the money to pay for all of this, others would be sunk by this proposal.  The reason, Title IX would require that this aid be given to all student athletes, male and female.  This would cost most Division I FBS schools an additional million dollars or more per year.  Most non-BCS schools do not have that kind of money.

According to the Mercury News article, only the current Automatic Qualifying schools would be able to afford this proposal, if you believe that this money comes from TV contracts.  I am certain that not all the BCS schools can afford this additional expense, as some of them are struggling even with all of the big money coming in.  The only non-Automatic Schools that would likely be able to meet this expense are BYU and the three service academies.  BYU's football contract is worth a minimum of 3 million, but will pay more than that most seasons.  The service academies already meet the full cost of attendance for their students, but it comes at the cost of a four year commitment to the Armed Forces.

Those not able to commit all of these funds would drop sponsoring sports.  This would force nearly all of the non-Automatic Qualifying Schools to either drop to the Football Championship Subdivision, or perhaps create a new football subdivision.  Either way, these schools get the playoff that they desire.  The BCS Automatic Qualifying Schools would be able to keep their bowls...albeit much fewer than we have now.  This would render the actions being taken by Utah Attorney General and the Justice Department moot.

It would not be all bad.  I believe that if there was a middle football subdivision created that the Big Sky and the Colonial Conferences would be invited to join the new division.  But the interest in schools in the MWC, C-USA, WAC, MAC and Sun Belt will wane and their attendance will dwindle.  This will not only affect Football, but Men's Basketball as well...also changing March Madness forever.  Of course when it comes to money, the BCS schools have proven that no tradition is too great to sacrifice.