University of Nebraska, University of Minnesota, and West Virginia University all recently announced that in the 2022-23 school year they will begin paying student-athletes for academic performance.
Since 2020, when the U.S Supreme Court upheld a federal court’s ruling that the NCAA was breaking antitrust laws by prohibiting paying athletes, programs like this have become more common. A survey done by ESPN this month of the 130 FBS-level schools found that 22 already had plans for these programs in place, with another 54 still considering if and how their bonus payments would work.
Schools can pay out academic bonuses of up to $5,980 per athlete, but how that money is doled out is not standardized. For example, Iowa State holds the bonus money aside for the athlete and pays it to them if they graduate. At Missouri, athletes receive $2,400 for reaching academic eligibility but need to hit a 3.5 GPA to receive the rest of their bonus.
How to pay athletes is the kind of decision the NCAA would typically make, but standardizing the program across all schools could be seen as a breach of antitrust law.
Neither Nebraska nor Minnesota announced details of how their bonus program would work, though Nebraska does expect to pay about $3 million in bonuses. This is on par with other schools’ budgets.
WVU however, set aside $1.5 million for their program. They plan to pay bonuses on an annual basis. They stipulated that the athlete must be “academically eligible and have a satisfactory student conduct record.” WVU also specified that an athlete can’t receive their bonus if they’re in the transfer portal.
There is also a discrepancy as to which athletes are eligible for the bonuses. While some schools pay any rostered athlete, some limit the bonuses to scholarship athletes only. Some schools are only paying athletes who play sports that bring in high revenue. Currently, Connecticut only gives academic bonuses to its men’s and women’s basketball teams. Again, neither Nebraska nor Minnesota released details on their plans.
For schools that have yet to announce academic bonus programs, there is potential for a situation where coaches are getting bonuses for their athletes’ academic performance, but the athletes are getting nothing.
Schools Paying Academic Bonuses
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Clemson
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Iowa State
- Kentucky
- LSU
- Miami
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Texas Tech
- Washington
- WVU
- Wisconsin
That’s called an academic scholarship
Of sorts… some students may already be at the top tier of merit scholarships at their institution. This is a nice bonus, And maybe the only academic money some athletes get.
There are so many flaws in this reward structure, I don’t even know where to begin.
Oh this has the potential to be a scandal fest.
Is this for undergrads only?
Each school has their own rules, but generally it seems to apply to all current varsity athletes.
C’mon Big10–you’re dragging your feet here! For an equivalent sport like swimming/diving where full ride scholarships are unicorns, this can make a difference to an athlete being able to afford to attend.
Will be big if non-scholarship swimmers are able to receive money for good grades to still help them out
What a joke! Athletes get academic performance bonuses! Give me a break!
UGA is giving out the bonuses to swimmers too. They already started it.
This UGA parent is happy about that and was pleased to see that money arrive. Let my student swimmer keep some for spend, but most goes to make some payments starting now on those student loans.
This makes me nervous for non revenue sports, as athletic departments may cut some programs to pay for the increased payouts that will start happening.
Could also be tied to the smaller rosters article as well.
I hope I’m wrong but swim programs were already being cut.