Horizon League decision on $2000 plan

vu72 · November 09, 2011, 11:30:42 AM

http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/horizon-league-announces-cost-of-attendance-policy.html

valpotx · November 09, 2011, 11:35:16 AM

Definitely a wise decision for our conference. If we didn't implement the change, that would just give the larger schools even more fodder to use against committing to our programs. Also good to see that each school will be allowed to implement the increase in any sport.

vuweathernerd · November 09, 2011, 02:51:30 PM

i expect that the cost of attendance addition for the other sports will occur as the money becomes available, and by one sport at a time.

valporun · November 09, 2011, 03:31:56 PM

Quote from: vuweathernerd on November 09, 2011, 02:51:30 PM
i expect that the cost of attendance addition for the other sports will occur as the money becomes available, and by one sport at a time.

That, or you will see some coaches really getting involved in fundraising for their respective sports. Maybe with this incentive in fundraising, the track will finally get the money it needs, so the team can get out of the basement in the HL?

agibson · November 12, 2011, 12:08:29 PM

Interesting. Good that the League's doing it together for basketball, no big surprise.

Are there any other sports where Valpo maxes out the number of allowed scholarships? I honestly don't know. If we don't max out, it's an interesting decision whether to give $$ out in lieu of additional scholarships.

vu72 · November 12, 2011, 12:26:03 PM

Particularly in sports where we recruit internationally, the extra bucks are required to keep pace. If a soccer player is coming from Hebron, I'm guessing it won't make a difference because, I suppose, they will need to provide receipts rather than simply adding 2 grand to their spending money.

valporun · November 12, 2011, 01:04:03 PM

Quote from: agibson on November 12, 2011, 12:08:29 PM
Interesting. Good that the League's doing it together for basketball, no big surprise.

Are there any other sports where Valpo maxes out the number of allowed scholarships? I honestly don't know. If we don't max out, it's an interesting decision whether to give $$ out in lieu of additional scholarships.

I don't believe we have many non-basketball sports that get enough scholarships to max out based on NCAA or Valpo Athletics maxes?I know track and cross country get two scholarships for the entire program, one men's and one women's, so no one is really getting paid there. I'm not sure what the details are for soccer, swimming, softball, baseball, tennis. Golf and Bowling are still too new for me to really know the details about those teams.

valpotx · November 12, 2011, 02:58:17 PM

I don't know the total we had in baseball, but we probably had 75% of the max allowed.

vu72 · December 28, 2011, 12:57:30 PM

Apparently the $2000 deal is now on hold. The NCAA is at it again, now recommending that students be given a five year scholarship rather than year to year. Pretty good article on same:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2011-12-27/schools-objecting-to-ncaa-scholarship-plan/52247594/1

valporun · December 28, 2011, 01:53:20 PM

The dissenting schools are mostly at the mid-major level, or the bottom tiers of the BCS schools, because they don't want to lose competitive balance or their multi-million dollar head coaches. The five-year contract plan would have several flaws, in the fact that you're now making the recruiting process more of a collective bargaining issue between a student-athlete and a school. The current system works, it's the kids who let their vulnerabilities show in neon lights that are hindering what the realities of college athletics are supposed to be. If you don't fit a system, either you need to work to fit the system, or improve so you can be a better fit than you already are, and helps with your draft status in football/basketball/baseball, or just remember you'll have a longer career in a job that leads to more family time than does a sport that steals money from you in so many ways.

valpotx · December 28, 2011, 03:31:46 PM

Broken coach promises need to be looked into more as well. They promise the world on the financial side, and then you read stories such as the one included in this topic, where the athlete is promised an amount that is not delivered. I was actually at my gym (sauna lol) a few days ago speaking about this same thing with a current TCU women's soccer player. She was promised a 100% scholarship from the start of her career, and the head coach left after her FR year. She was only allotted a 50% scholarship her FR year when her parents were billed for the rest, and the new coach offered that same 50% for her pending SO year.

Coaches can lie during the recruiting process to get quality athletes, improve W-L records, then jump ship somewhere else to make more money, leaving the athletes out to dry with a 'your word against mine' mentality versus the university when the coach is gone. I feel that they should have to honor the full 4-5 year scholarship guarantee to all athletes as offered, with the same amount each year. Of course, if a student-athlete does something against school policy, you could build into the scholarship agreement an out clause for behavior/grades/etc. An athlete should not be put out after a year or two because they didn't live up to the performance expectations, and then have their scholarship revoked. I am very much on the side of athletes when it comes to these types of discussions, as schools/coaches are making a good amount of money off of them, and are basically able to mess with someone's life if they aren't the superstar the coach hoped they were getting...