LSU athletes enjoying extra cash from new NCAA rule

BATON ROUGE “Cost of Attendance” is an NCAA buzz phrase circulating for a few years now that means those expenses student-athletes incur outside of the tuition, room and board, books and fees that their full scholarship covers.

These are miscellaneous expenses such as trips home, food outside of those offered at university dining halls, clothes and entertainment. Many athletes for decades — particularly those at schools not breaking NCAA rules by providing extra benefits such as $100 handshakes or free dinners at restaurants via boosters — had to just do without seeing a movie or running to McDonald’s for a midnight snack.

That all changed for student-athletes at schools that belong to the larger, upper level conferences as the NCAA allowed those schools to provide Cost of Attendance money to student-athletes with each school’s financial aid office determining the amount distributed over an academic year. This figure ranges from $6,000 a year to $1,500 a year depending on the school, its location and other factors with quite a bit of subjectivity that has some concerned.

LSU student-athletes on full scholarship in sports like football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s gymnastics and others will be getting $3,920 over the next two semesters if they live off campus. Those that live on campus on full scholarship will get $3,336. Depending on their age, distance from home, situation at home and their own discretion, student-athletes are receiving the money either in a lump sum or monthly in addition to the scholarship money they also receive.

And they are enjoying the extra cash in their pockets and bank accounts that started being distributed in August, which breaks down to approximately an extra $300 a month and some change.

“I went straight to Wal Mart,” said LSU sophomore tailback Leonard Fournette, who is helping support a young daughter. “It’s definitely more money than last year. It surprised me. It surprised everybody, especially the people that have been here three, four years. Some guys didn’t know it was coming. But most of it needs to pay off your bills. It’s all about money management. You can’t just blow all your money. You’ll have no food in the house.”

All LSU athletes are encouraged to open checking accounts, and most have, said associate athletic director for student services Miriam Segar.

“We have done that for some time before the cost of attendance,” Segar said. “Our student-athletes have had to manage their scholarship money, grant money and now this. We try to teach them good spending and saving habits.”

LSU junior kicker Colby Delahoussaye started writing checks as soon as his COA check came in.

“I immediately paid my bills — rent, cable, phone — and bought groceries,” he said. “And I saved some. Last year, it was not as much. So I still was able to go to my favorite Chinese place. It’s nice to be able to do that, and it’s good to have some extra money if you need more clothes. And I like to have the extra money in my savings just in case something pops up.”

That is what happened to LSU senior outside linebacker Lamar Louis of Breaux Bridge.

“Last year, I had car problems and that cost about $1,000,” he said. “I didn’t have it, so I had to borrow from my parents. With a few hundred dollars more a month now, it will give us an opportunity to save a little money in the bank in case something happens.”

Louis, who lives off campus, hit the grocery store first, though.

“There was nothing in my refrigerator,” he said. “I plan on getting some more massages, too. We get some here (at LSU’s football facility), but now I’ll be able to pay for an extra one. It’s great. I won’t be living check to check as much. Some of the guys are staying in better apartments with the extra money, and a lot of the guys have kids of their own so it helps them.”

The extra money for LSU’s student-athletes is expected to cost the school between $1.6 to $2 million in extra expenditures in 2015-16, said LSU associate athletic director for business Mark Ewing.

LSU ranks ninth in the SEC in the cost of attendance stipend at $3,920. Tennessee has the largest COA disbursement in the SEC at $5,666, followed by Auburn at $5,586, Alabama at $5,386, Mississippi State at $5,156, Ole Miss at $4,890, Arkansas at $4,500, Missouri at $4,290, South Carolina at $4,201, LSU at $3,920, Florida at $3,830, Georgia at $3,746, Kentucky at $3,598 and Texas A&M at $3,528. Vanderbilt, which is not a state school like the other 13 in the SEC and not subject to state open records laws, did not provide its COA figure.

LSU coach Les Miles does not like eight other league schools boasting larger stipends than his for recruiting purposes and has an issue with the arbitrariness of each school deciding its own figure based on differing factors.

LSU’s financial aid office, for example, could have estimated its COA total to be lower than others because LSU student-athletes do not need as much money as those at other schools for between-meals eating. This is because LSU added several “fueling stations” of snacks and quick meals a year ago at the academic center for athletes, at the football facility as well as other high traffic areas at a cost of $1 million, according to Ewing. These were allowed in recent years because of previous NCAA legislation to provide more food for student-athletes outside of designated meals.

“Certainly the NCAA should regulate it,” Miles said. “There has to be some kind of qualitative similarity. It’s not that everybody should make the same amount of money, but it is important that they take the same reference into account as opposed to just allowing the school to do it because the schools can inappropriately do it. Cost of attendance can be a lot different in a lot of places. I think a school that is in New York City should have a higher cost of attendance. That’s realistic. As long as there is equity in some way, I’m good. Am I concerned? Yeah, I think there’s a chance that a school’s interpretation could be inappropriate.”