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: NCAA Student Assistance Fund
An oft-cited, oft-relied on financial resource available to the NCAA membership each year is the Student Assistant Fund (SAF). The SAF is a go-to resource on Division I campuses as this fund plays a marquee role in funding student-athlete centered education and personal needs. Some of these needs overlap with the “education-related benefits” identified in the Alston case that was reviewed in Tuesday’s Athletics Veritas.
The SAF is an amalgamation of two NCAA national office funding formulas called the Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund and the Special Assistance Fund. For Division I’s Fiscal Year 2019, the combined total budgeted revenue from these funds that fed back to the Division I membership as SAF dollars was over $86M. The distribution formula that determines how much SAF funding goes back to each Division I institution considers the number of Pell Grant-eligible student-athletes, the number of sports sponsored, and the total grants-in-aid equivalencies awarded.
Per NCAA rules, student-athletes may receive money from the NCAA SAF provided member institutions and conferences do not use money received from the fund to finance salaries and benefits; tuition and fees, room and board and required course-related books during a regular term (other than summer school) for student-athletes with remaining eligibility; capital improvements; stipends; competition-related travel expenses for student-athletes who are ineligible for competition (e.g., non-qualifier, transfer student-athlete); and outside athletics development opportunities (e.g., participation in a sports camp or clinic, private sports-related instruction, greens fees, batting cage rental, outside foreign tour expenses) for current student-athletes with remaining eligibility.
SAF monies are generally disbursed each June to be used the following academic year. At the end of each academic year, the NCAA national office collects data on how the funds are spent by each institution via a report of uses form. Conference offices serve as an intermediary to help review and track how their member schools use SAF resources.
The SAF spending restrictions on non-student-athlete centered expenses are in place to help protect SAF monies to go toward a wide swath of permissible uses to support both current and former student-athletes. The SAF may go toward the following types of expenses to provide direct support to student-athletes, in any sport, in financial need:
Educational expenses and fees: summer school, fifth- or sixth-year aid, tutoring, international student fees and taxes, professional program testing, supplies (expendable or educational), Champs/Life Skills/Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and other educational expenses.
Health and safety expenses: insurance premiums for student-athletes, medical, dental or vision expenses for student-athletes (not covered by another insurance program for student-athletes), and other health and safety expenses.
Personal or family expenses: clothing, travel, other personal or family expenses, and stipend for cost of attendance.
Institutional academic or programming enhancements: academic achievement or graduation awards, academic support services, and other academic or programming expenses.
Where does the SAF money come from?
The SAF is fueled by the revenue generated by the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament broadcast rights, although Division I’s normal, annual revenue distribution was overhauled this spring by the Board of Governors in light of the Division I basketball tournaments and spring sport championships being canceled due to the pandemic. This modified distirbution included a trimming of the 2020-21 SAF slice of the pie. As a result, available SAF dollars at Division I campuses have been depleted compared to recent years--a difficult reality compounded by the reported uptick of student-athletes' financial emergencies during the pandemic.
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.
