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** LSU coach Les Miles thinks it's time to pay players a $200 stipend to dissuade them from dealing with agents. "That's not paying players, it's the scholarship. Suddenly the scholarship involves a $200 stipend, the level of scholarship is taller," Miles said **

Anyone have a problem with this? There are plenty of schools handling out scholarships to students (non-athletes) that include a monthly stipend on top of the traditional "full ride". What's wrong with doing that for athletes so they, too, might have a little spending money? I understand there would have to be caps and that the NCAA is still going to have enforcement problems, but it might actually help to level the playing field a bit.

My cousin made money by going to OU. National merit scholarship, all bills paid, plus a monthly stipend.

my son got $300/month stipend at Clemson. That was a life saver for me.

I don't see how a student athlete can do all that's expected of them and hold down a job.

You can't just pay the Football and Basketball players without paying all sports (Women included).

They are already getting a Full Ride and most schools don't make anything from even their FB teams.

Don't think the NCAA will do much of anything. A quarter of a century of nothing isn't changed overnight.

They get stipend for stuff already...

Two different issues. Yes they deserve a stipend of some amount. But, the stipend is not going to stop agents or illegal booster activity. So it just becomes an issue of money, and do the schools want to increase the amount of scholarship cost per athlete.

When I was on scholarship we could not work even if we had the time and wanted to. All we got in compliance with the rules was $10.00/month of laundry money.

I remember kids on scholarship getting pell grants every year.
Mine could never get it because I made a little something something

Read the Mariotti and your Pell Grant point is a good one. Saban is in there saying his kids are poor, pay a stipend to cut the temptation. Players already get a stipend that covers the average student cost of room and board. While that figure is smaller in AL than it is in Dallas or LA it's not insignificant and if you're that broke as a player that you'll have your hand out you get get the Pell which got bumped up to around 5k. How much money does an on the level player need to get by?

The problem is one of scope. Let's say you allow for a $200/mo stipend during the school year per full scholarship. That adds up to $2,000 per player. Title IX would require you to be fair about it with female athletes. Assume that we have 300 full scholarship athletes at SMU. That's $600,000 per year. That ain't chicken feed. UT, OU, Alabama, LSU, TAM can afford that. But what about Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, TCU, which already are faced with $15,000,000 in scholarship costs every year for sports. Such a plan would be for one purpose and one purpose only, to drive the non-AQ conference teams to FCS status. I tend to agree with the thought that players should get some spending money to avoid agents and boosters slipping them a little sumthin, sumthin. But, don't be mistaken. It is not a coincidence that this proposal is coming from the larger programs. It has one intent, to up the arms race to cull the herd.

The only way stipend money to players could ever possibly work would be if the NCAA paid the stipend, not individual schools. The money would have to come from TV contracts and bowl money.

And would it be fair to pay D1 school players and exclude FCS players? This idea is a train wreck in the making.

It never made me mad kids were getting the pell money.
But when they were buying systems for their cars and rims yes it pissed me off.

Sometimes it's good to be broke at the bottom and work up. It will give you value in things that will continue to fulfill you the rest of your life.

Anyone know if athletes on scholarship can apply for federal or some other kind of loan? I just bet they can get all the money they need from existing programs. The boosters add temptation and could get you a land rover but an honest football player shouldn't be starving or unable to buy a pizza