We should have been on this list - was Lyons asleep at the wheel?
http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/college/big-12/article28342144.html
The cost of attending Big 12 universities on top of tuition, room and board:
1. Texas Tech $5,100
2. TCU $4,700
3. Oklahoma $4,614
4. Oklahoma State $4,560
5. Texas $4,310
6. Kansas State $4,112
7. Baylor $3,882
8. Kansas $3,076
9. Iowa State $2,430
10. West Virginia $1,971
Source: Chronicle of Education
Cost-of-attendance money could take place of jobs for college athletes
By the end of his sophomore season, James McFarland was tired of running out of money.
He had enough to get by, but his TCU football scholarship could only cover so many unexpected expenses. So McFarland, now a senior defensive end for the Horned Frogs, applied for a job at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop by campus and was hired as a cashier.
“I was tired of relying on everybody else for money,” he said. “So I was just thinking I’d go out and make my own money for a little bit, and see what that’s like.”
McFarland, though, soon remembered why he hadn’t gotten a job sooner. Between class and workouts, even part-time work conflicted with his schedule. When his grades began to slip, he quit.
The prospect of collecting extra spending money — the kind he was trying to earn at Fuzzy’s — is what excites McFarland the most about the new Big 12 policy that will cover full “cost of attendance” on top of scholarships this school year.
The measure was passed by the conference last December and by all Power 5 leagues in January. Its goal is to
cover the cost gap between a “grant-in-aid” scholarship and the actual cost to attend a certain university, factoring in external expenses like local housing rates, airfare, and miscellaneous fees.
For TCU scholarship athletes, it will mean around an extra $4,700. That’s the second most in the Big 12, according to the
Chronicle of Higher Education. Texas Tech’s projected figure,
as reported in April, was the league’s highest, at $5,100, while West Virginia’s was the lowest at $1,971.
Over the course of a year, the extra money will equate to a few hundred extra dollars a month. That’s about what a college student might earn with a part-time job, which is difficult to maintain for most athletes.
An in-season job isn’t an option, and the second semester is filled with winter workouts and spring practices.
“I haven’t been able to even apply for a job with how much time we commit to our classes and everything,” West Virginia offensive lineman Tyler Orlosky said.
Said Oklahoma State cornerback Kevin Peterson, “We pick the job we have now: Football.”
Kansas State safety Dante Barnett has worked security during the summer.
That’s also when Iowa State cornerback Sam E. Richardson works at the university’s library, checking out DVDs. He eased into the job last year, clocking a handful of $7.25 hours per week, before increasing his schedule this year.
For Richardson, his biggest cost has been travel. He’s from League City, south of Houston. A round trip flight from Des Moines, Iowa, to Texas has cost him at least $500 each time he goes home twice a year.
The extra money should help cover travel costs like the ones Richardson detailed, and other expenses not covered by the usual allowance for housing and meal plans. TCU, for example, allotted $1,200 of its extra $4,700 for travel costs.
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said the new money is “moving in the right direction.”
“There’s an awful lot of guys who can’t afford to do anything outside of the bare necessities,” Snyder said. “And I don’t think [extra cost of attendance money] is paying players. ... It is providing them with what we said we’d provide them with: The quality education and the expenses for a normal college existence.”
Snyder does have one qualm with the new policy.
Because each school determines its own cost of attendance figure, discrepancies exist. Most aren’t drastic, and when divided monthly, often amount to a difference of $100 or less.
But there is a noticeable range, as evidenced in the Big 12 by West Virginia ($1,971) and Texas Tech ($5,100). Iowa, Notre Dame, USC and Michigan State will also have cost of attendance payouts less than $2,000, according to the Chronicle for Higher Education.
Earlier this week, the NCAA
committed $18.9 million to Division I cost-of-attendance funds, which should soften the burden schools face when determining their figures.
But Snyder said he’d like to see a more equal way of calculating what each school should give.
“You have to question some of that, those numbers and how you come up with those numbers,” he said. “The cost of Burger King is no different in Boston than it is in Kansas.”
