Cost of Attendance Announced

[T-Dog]

$3,400 for football and men's and women's basketball.



85 football scholarships
13 men's basketball scholarships
15 women's basketball scholarships

$384,200 total.

[AppFan11]

T-Dog, do you know what the rest of the conference is doing in regards cost of attendance? football,m/w b-ball, all scholly athletes?

[T-Dog]

Everyone is different. I don't have all the info, but could get most of it in the next 24 hours.

[bigdaddyg]

I have stood pat on my belief that this is an incredibly stupid thing to institute for college student athletes. Think of all of the SEC football studs who will have to take a pay cut. Seriously though I am not completely opposed to some sort of qualified grant that certain student athletes could apply for and receive. You would think that there are parents out there who can afford to send their son or daughter some spending money considering that they are already on a full ride. My idea is for the student athlete to apply for a grant (they are already part of financial aid packages now) that can be used for any purpose and doesn't have to be repaid. An across the board COA is not going to be met with equal appreciation. The probable first round draft pick at Alabama is going to get the same COA as the 4th string QB who may never see the field? Come on man!

[Saint3333]

Are these amounts included in the title IX calculation? If so there will be many colleges dropping even more men's programs across the nation.

[appbio91]

This is another scandal in the waiting. You are correct in that the big dogs will use this as more leverage to separate the haves from the have nots. I further fully agree this should be need based. I am not rich but if my kid was on a full ride scholarship I certainly could give her some spending money. I do recognize there are those who can't so this is not completely w/o merit. This is a carrot to the bigs who want to pay their athletes and turn college athletics (football) into a semi-pro organization.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Yosef84]

I agree with those who think COA is a ticking time bomb. Leaving it up to individual universities with no real guidelines on how it is to be calculated is just a way of widening the gap between the major programs and those "smaller" schools who want to compete. Even within conferences, there are going to be wide gaps. The NCAA has supposedly tried to build parity over the past few decades, but this is nothing more than ammunition for the dynasty programs.

[moonshine]

I thought the COA was based off of some Federal "algorithm" and tied to financial aid. If that's the case, I'm not sure how much wiggle room the big time programs have in trying to increase it without it effecting the entire student body and their ability to get financial aid. Don't get me wrong, they probably have already hired staff to help them set up offshore accounts in Panama.

[Yosef84]

I'm certainly no authority on the subject, but my understanding is that there are guidelines but they are open to fairly broad interpretation and that individual institutions are ultimately responsible for calculating their own COA. If there were an algorithm that calculated COA based on tuition, geographic index for Cost of Living and some other defined factors, it might fly. I don't think that's how it works. I could be wrong. I'm sure someone will correct me if I am.

[appst89]

I'm certainly no authority on the subject, but my understanding is that there are guidelines but they are open to fairly broad interpretation and that individual institutions are ultimately responsible for calculating their own COA. If there were an algorithm that calculated COA based on tuition, geographic index for Cost of Living and some other defined factors, it might fly. I don't think that's how it works. I could be wrong. I'm sure someone will correct me if I am.

I'm pretty sure that every financial aid office at every school is required to compute a cost of attendance for their particular institution based upon the local cost of living. This number is used to calculate federal financial aid. This is the number that is to be used when paying cost of attendance for athletes. It certainly doesn't eliminate the possibility of fudging the numbers, but being tied to federal financial aid opens them up to more, and more severe, sanctions than any charges that could be brought by the NCAA. I don't think too many schools are going to want to risk all their federal aid to pay athletes an $3k or $4k per year.

[firemoose]

I'm going to wait for T-Dog to dig up his figures as I'm covered up with a bunch of others things coming to the next signing day. But I have a lot of figures and articles in my notes that have been batted around since COA was approved. And not just SB schools but pretty much across the board in the FBS. Some of the figures are completely nuts, and I'm not talking only at the P5 level. Our "friends" down in eastern GA threw a figure out in an article which was completely crazy, putting it mildly. And their reason in the article was even more crazy. Given they had to scale way back on their original expansion plans a few years ago due to lack of funds they would have to have had more than a few rich uncles to bite the dust to afford what was mentioned. I'm not going to poison the well with a bunch of figures that have no doubt changed so I'll let T-Dog gather his info. Just know that if some of these are still true that many will be shocked, from both ends of the scale.

[Eagle22]

I'm going to wait for T-Dog to dig up his figures as I'm covered up with a bunch of others things coming to the next signing day. But I have a lot of figures and articles in my notes that have been batted around since COA was approved. And not just SB schools but pretty much across the board in the FBS. Some of the figures are completely nuts, and I'm not talking only at the P5 level. Our "friends" down in eastern GA threw a figure out in an article which was completely crazy, putting it mildly. And their reason in the article was even more crazy. Given they had to scale way back on their original expansion plans a few years ago due to lack of funds they would have to have had more than a few rich uncles to bite the dust to afford what was mentioned. I'm not going to poison the well with a bunch of figures that have no doubt changed so I'll let T-Dog gather his info. Just know that if some of these are still true that many will be shocked, from both ends of the scale.

I don't have the number in front of me, but what Georgia Southern is going to pay is very close to $3400.

The amount we are authorized to offer is significantly higher than that, greater than $6000 a year but we simply cannot afford to supplement COA at that amount at this time, so we are apparently funding around what the Sun Belt median will be ... which will neither give us a competitive advantage or put us behind anyone in the league.

Our figures weren't nuts, or crazy. They were the same numbers that were federally audited (for many years prior to COA even being though of) and derived through all of the same formulas that other schools can submit data to. True, some schools in the past have probably not been thoughtful or forthright on those submissions because that data can also be used against 'you' when someone is comparing out-of-pocket costs between programs (think non-athletes).

Statesboro is in a remote area, relative to the majority of its student base. The difference in costs is almost exclusively due to added travel distances (200 miles to Atlanta) and expensive flights out of Savannah.

When I get back home I'll dig up the exact number. It is published in our Athletic fan guide that just came out, I do not have the link in front of me at the moment.

[Yosef84]

Thanks for the information, Appst89. It is good to know there is more structure than I thought. I knew there was SOME structure and that the numbers ultimately had to stand up to a standard. Maybe the variance I've seen comes from the calculated allowable max being fairly high, so the reality is that nobody but the entrenched powers would be able to pay that amount.

I guess we will all see how this plays out.

[firemoose]

Eagle: I always appreciate your insight and thank you for your number for the Eagles. One less school for T-Dog to have to dig up.

However I never said that the figures were true or even close, only that they, along with many others from dozens of schools, were mentioned in dozens of articles over the past two years. I said that I had a ton of notes and clips of articles that I've gathered since COA was approved. I never said they were correct. In fact I believe I clearly stated that they were "batted" around. The note I copied from an article out of the Herald about your Eagles was from well over a year ago and I never once said it was true, just that it was thrown out. And before you ask I do not have the whole article (which is why I never used the figure, until now), just as I didn't keep links or copies of the dozens of other articles from many other schools since I knew that nearly all of them were incorrect or would change. They were just little tidbits I found interesting and saved to a word doc. But it was $8,000+ and the reason given was that many of your athletes are from the northern part of the state and travel costs are more, something you mentioned. But I didn't write the article nor did I say it was accurate, again just that it was said. We have athletes from much further away but no one ever mentioned $8,000 in an article about us. Hence the "crazy" comment. And I also never once said anything about you having any advantage since I knew the figures were more than likely wrong, which was why I was not going to actually use a figure.

As I stated in the previous post "I'm not going to poison the well with a bunch of figures that have no doubt changed", which referred to GA Sou just like the rest of the FBS. And I also said I was going to "let T-Dog gather his numbers". But you just keep on keeping on and I'll do the same.

[Eagle22]

The numbers, no doubt, are averages .... not looking just at athletes and how far someone is or isn't from school A or school B. It has to be a collective thing. These numbers are derived from the student body as a whole, not just athletes.

I was initially thrown by the reported numbers that came from the initial COA estimate, until I dug around and saw that they were exactly in line with the numbers we had been reporting to the Feds all along. The funny thing is that some schools, like UGA, had been probably fudging them on the short side to appear to the masses of applicants to be a better value, and once this got utilized for athletics it became a serious issue for them

It could have been $12,000 for Georgia Southern, it would never matter .... we would and will only pay what we can afford, and fortunately it looks like most teams in the Sun Belt will be paying the same range of money (neighborhood of $3,500) if they are electing to pay it.

I don't know what was reported in any article, certainly many articles that have been discussing numbers have come about but until it was in print I wasn't even sure how much we'd consider paying. I just knew from our budgetary standpoint we'd not be paying the full amount.

If we had unlimited sources of funding it could be a competitive advantage IF Georgia Southern's range continued to be double that of some other league schools. But that is not the case (unlimited funding), so our athletic department has wisely adapted to be sure we pay it at an amount commensurate with other league schools, within the latitude we are given. I realize you didn't say that, I was inferring it could be a contentious point for others though if we were flush with cash and had nothing to spend it on.


https://issuu.com/gsathletics/docs/1617 ... finalweb/1

It can be found on page 7. We are committed to paying $3700.00 and the maximum allowed for us is $5,988.00 (I was wrong, it is not greater than $6,000.00 .... missed it by $12 )

We have $2,288 unfunded at this time that could potentially be given, that isn't.

[T-Dog]

This info is subject to change as school are finding ways to budget more money toward FCOA. Some schools might have plans that aren't public. I decided not to FOIA the entire Sun Belt, especially with Georgia's new laws that would have cost of hundreds of dollars. So this is based off articles, message boards and the like.

Some schools just give each program's coach the money and tell him to do what he feels like. Virginia Tech Baseball took their FCOA allotment and funded the equivalent of four extra scholarships with it. Other schools are paying each athlete directly. The NCAA gave every D1 member school $55,000 for COA last June.

Basically, everyone in the Sun Belt is offering something this fall.

-App State is offering $3,400 per year for football, men's and women's basketball in Fall 2016 and phasing other sports in over five years. 3.4k is the max FCOA that can be offered.
-Arkansas State is offering $4,000 per year per full scholarship out of a FCOA of $4,500. They started in Fall 2015.
-UL-Lafayette is offering $4,036 per year per full scholarship, which is their max FCOA. They started in Fall 2015.
-Texas State is offering $3,040 per year for each athlete, which is their max FCOA, starting in Fall 2016.
-Little Rock is offering $4,500 per year for men's and women's basketball out of a FCOA of $5,000. They started in Fall 2016.
-Troy just started offering $3,000 per year per full scholarship. Their FCOA is near $5,000. They started in Spring 2016.
-South Alabama budgeted $850,000 this past year for COA. Their FCOA is $5,470. Couldn't find the exact amount given out or to who, but it looks like every athlete is covered, even if it isn't FCOA.
-ULM has been back and forth on COA. Their FCOS is around $6,000 a year, so there's no way they're offering all of it, as it would be over a million per year. They're gonna try to offer something this fall if the state of Louisiana doesn't fiscally castrate them first.
-Georgia State's FCOA is $3,570, although I couldn't find when they're offering COA. I know they didn't offer it this past year.
-UT-Arlington is unknown, although I suspect it's around $3,500 due to being in a large city like Georgia State and they might only be doing it for men's and women's basketball in Fall 2016.
-Coastal Carolina is offering between $4,500 and $5,300, their max FCOA, for men's and women's basketball only. They started in Fall 2015

[bcoach]

This is just the beginning. Big mistake from day one.

[AppFan11]

Thanks T-Dog for your work. I appreciate it.

[JTApps1]

I just don't see how a place like Troy can have a max FOA that much higher than App. The cost of living in a rural part of Alabama can't be higher than that of a mountainous destination area in NC. Anyone that owns property in the high country will tell you it's an expensive place to live.

[sixtoes9134]

I was for a while in the camp of supporting the notion of COA. But, honestly, the more and more I think about it I think it is ridiculous. I have one child at App and another getting ready to go to college next year. We are not rich, but not poor, and I can say for sure that next year will not be easy for us and we will probably have to do some loans with both in school.

The concept of a free education is really quite a fringe benefit, if you think about it.

I get all the reasons why people are for it, but it really sucks to think that athletes will soon be getting a free education and a paycheck, with no loans to pay back.