The $2,000 stipend suspended, for now ...

Remember that new NCAA provision adopted in November that would allow Division I athletic conferences to allow their institutions to give an additional $2,000 to some scholarship athletes to cover some of their incidental college expenses? Well, not so fast. After 125 schools by December 15 had requested an override of the new rule, the NCAA decided to suspend it at least until the NCAA Board of Governors meets in mid-January, when changes could be made in it. In general, the schools requested the override based on one or more of these factors -- the speed at which the new rule came about, concerns about its effect on fair competition, concerns about implementation in all sports, and concerns about the effect on activities related to Title IX (the 1972 federal law prohibiting any form of gender-based discrimination in any educational activity -- including athletics -- at institutions receiving federal funds).

The $2,000 stipend for scholarship athletes ...

Now the NCAA will allow college football conferences to allow – if they want – their schools to give athletes on full scholarships an additional stipend of up to $2,000 per year. The need for this additional money is understandable. After all, despite its value to players, even a full-ride scholarship doesn’t provide money for gas … for an occasional pizza … for a movie.  And even if scholarship athletes could get legitimate jobs, the time demands of their commitment to the team don’t come close to allowing that. There are practices, meetings, workouts … even the so-called “voluntary” workouts during the summer … that effectively turn many college athletes, and especially those at Division I schools, into de facto full-time employees of the institution, even if that makes these student-athletes’ educations a secondary consideration (an issue for another day here). So based on the need to help these full-ride scholarship players cope with legitimate, additional financial needs, NCAA president Mark Emmert makes a good case, as noted in a great question-and-answer exchange in the Houston Chronicle. But part of what he says – that this will not widen the gap between the football programs with great resources and the football programs with not-so-great resources – is a bit of a stretch. Although we’re all familiar with media reports of how much revenue football programs bring in,  that's the exception rather than the rule. The fact is that most don’t make money. In fact, between 2004 and 2010, only 7 percent of Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A) made money, according to an NCAA report.  UPDATE: As of December 15, the rule was suspended, pending a meeting of the NCAA board of Governors in mid-January,2012.