Athletics Veritas is a weekly series aimed at helping higher education executives, faculty, and other stakeholders stay tuned in on trending national issues impacting college athletics, especially NCAA Division I. Athletics Veritas is created by senior DI athletic administrators around the nation.
Term-in-Ology:Paying for Incoming Student-Athletes’ Travel Costs to Arrive to Campus
As Division I adopted this past summer a slew of deregulations to Bylaw 16— the area that governs student-athletes’ awards and benefits.
One area deregulated that could provide student-athletes more financial benefits (or, more accurately, cost savings) while also making Athletic Directors and Athletic Department business managers’ sweat is the ability for Division I institutions to pay for travel costs (e.g., flights, mileage reimbursement) for a student-athlete to arrive to campus to begin classes or pre-season practice.
In other words, another “keeping up with the Joneses” benefit for student-athletes has been crafted through the current season of deregulation. Whether Division I schools are going to pay for the costs— often several hundred dollars for out of state student-athletes— to arrive for school or pre-season practice remains to be seen.
This line-item is worth keeping an eye on, especially next summer, noting that the proposal was only adopted in early August 2022. As media rights deals begin to separate conferences’ inbound cash-flow, some well-heeled Division I institutions may be inclined to help many inbound student-athletes with their travel costs while others may approach it more selectively for student-athletes based on need and/or distance from campus and yet other Division I institutions may not even consider it fiscally possible.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
