The NCAA appears poised to deliver next month on declarations that college athletics should get more of its multi-billions in revenue to its athletes.
A committee weighing a number of potential changes is expected to recommend that the value of individual scholarships be raised by as much as $2,000 in the top-tier Division I, moving them closer to covering the athletes' full cost of attending school. Full grants currently cover only room, board, books and tuition.
The NCAA's Division I board of directors would act on the proposal when it meets Oct. 26 and 27 in Indianapolis.
There is "widespread support" within the committee weighing the measure, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said during a presentation to major-college ADs earlier this week in Grapevine, Texas. Swarbrick sits on the panel, which also appears likely to ask for a move from single-year to multi-year scholarships.
Sentiment in the past year has grown for finding ways to put more money into the hands of athletes, particularly in the wake of lucrative new television agreements struck by the NCAA in basketball, the Bowl Championship Series in football and a number of major conferences. Analysis by USA TODAY found that, in 2009-10, median college costs at public universities exceeded an athlete's scholarship coverage by about $4,000. The range at individual schools varied from $177 to more than $9,600.
The gap entails such incidental costs of attendance as travel and laundry.
Scholarship increases would vary by school, and Swarbrick's committee is proposing a cap: the lesser of an institution's uncovered costs or $2,000. The move, if approved next month, wouldn't be mandatory but subject to adoption by conference. Amounts for athletes on partial scholarships would be prorated.
"The philosophy that makes this make sense to us," Swarbrick said, "is that, really, because of the demands we place on student-athletes, their opportunity to generate any other revenue for themselves in a way that other students do is simply not there. And we ought to recognize that and make up for it."
Multi-year scholarships also are seen as an athlete-welfare issue, and Swarbrick said his committee favors that proposal even though it might not bring athletes the security many expect.
"The process for nonrenewal of an annual grant probably would look just like the process for terminating a four-year grant," he told ADs. "… But we did think the statement that would be made about our commitment to student-athletes was worth doing and made this a change worth pursuing."
The moves are part of a series of sweeping changes the NCAA anticipates enacting in the next year.
The Division I board also figures to endorse toughened eligibility requirements for incoming freshman athletes during its October meetings, raising the bottom-line grade-point requirement from 2.0 to 2.5 in core high school classes - English, math, science and social studies. Additionally, NCAA President Mark Emmert said it could require year-to-year progress toward high school graduation, averting the specter of athletes piling up credits as seniors or the summer after their senior year.
"We've seen far too many summer miracles occur where students are taking 16 hours of high school course work in three months and getting straight As," Emmert said.
Planned reforms in rules enforcement - most notably devoting more attention and resources to major violations and backing off such pickier and harder-to-enforce regulations as phone call and texting limits - are likely to take until next summer, he said.
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