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: Student-Athlete Room and Board Stipends
Earlier this week, Athletics Veritas examined how residual scholarship money from a meal (aka “board”) stipend along with other financial resources (e.g., cost-of-attendance stipends, Pell grants) can equate to extra pocket money for student-athletes, particularly those on full athletics scholarships. Similar to meal stipends, a room stipend can also lead to pocket money or at least defray other non-room/rent expenses for student-athletes depending on the value of the student-athlete's room scholarship in comparison, for example, to their monthly, off-campus rent.
NCAA financial aid regulations related to room stipends state that an institution may provide the student-athlete an amount equal to the institution's official on-campus room allowance as listed in its catalog, the average of the room costs of all of its students living on campus or the cost of room as calculated based on its policies and procedures for calculating the cost of attendance for all students.
In terms of a meal or board stipend within an athletics scholarship, NCAA rules allow a Division I institution to provide a student-athlete an amount that is equivalent to the value of the maximum meal plan that is available to all students or the cost of meals as calculated based on its policies and procedures for calculating the cost of attendance for all students, excluding those meals provided as part of the training table. Meals provided on the training table shall be deducted at the regular cost figure from such a student-athlete's board allowance.
Division I has become increasingly student-athlete-friendly when it comes to making food available without actual cost to the student-athlete. Most notably, Division I schools are permitted to provide any student-athlete with snacks and meals incidental to participation with great deference afforded to each institution to determine what it considers “incidental to participation.” The emergence of incidental meals has also obscured the need for a traditional training table meal which as noted above, had to be deducted from the student-athlete's board plan balance.
The more incidental meals a student-athlete receives, the less their meal plan balance gets depleted toward food costs because their institution is feeding them directly, at no direct cost to the student-athlete. This “savings” in the meal column means that the residual scholarship balance can go toward defraying the student-athlete’s other out-of-pocket expenses (e.g., utilities, loans) or, if those are covered, simply to their pocket.
When a full-scholarship Division I student-athlete receives a full cost-of-attendance stipend, all of their tuition, course fees, and books paid, a full meal stipdend, a full room stipend, and they receive from their institution 8 to 10 incidental meals per week (at no cost) and live with a few teammates in an off-campus apartment or house (thereby reducing their pro-rata monthly rent and utility bill costs)--it reveals how a Division I student-athlete can position themself to accrue from their athletics scholarship hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, in residual pocket money each semester.
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.
