Lawmaker files stipend bill for athletes

AUSTIN (AP) -- Saying college athletes should cash in on at least some of the millions of dollars they generate for their schools, a Texas lawmaker has proposed letting state universities give them up to $200 a month.

A bill filed this week by Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, would allow the schools to set up grant programs to give the money to scholarship athletes.

It's only fair, Wilson said, to give something back to the football, basketball and baseball players who put on the uniform and represent their schools.

"These kids are raising a lot of money for the schools," Wilson said Tuesday. "(Many) of them won't graduate and the schools know it. They're being used for the schools' benefit without any kind of compensation."

Wilson has filed the bill in previous sessions with no success. But this time, it comes on the heels of legislative action in Nebraska, where lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow the University of Nebraska to pay its football players a stipend..

There are some big hurdles for Wilson's bill, the biggest being the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which doesn't allow such payments.

The stipend for a scholarship athlete would be considered a special benefit, said NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro. Any school who paid it would put the athlete's eligibility at risk as well as face potential penalties for the entire program.

"You're basing it on the selection of them as a scholarship athlete," Renfro said. "It's an extra benefit and not permissible."

Renfro also noted financial aid programs available for athletes who are strapped for cash, including Pell Grants (which pay up to more than $3,000 a year), and other NCAA assistance programs.

Typically, a full scholarship at a Division I school provides the student athlete with tuition, room and board and books. At major universities, athletes also are given access to special tutoring and academic counseling.

Wilson dismisses critics who say that should be enough.

"You could make the same argument about the farmer who buys feed for the hogs and gives them antibodies to keep them healthy and then makes sure they have enough space so they can grow and in the end slaughter them," Wilson said. "Those ungrateful pigs, they should've been happy."

Wilson said his bill keeps universities on the right side of the NCAA by allowing -- not requiring -- the payments. To fund the program, schools would set aside 10 percent of athletic receipts.

Although he doesn't think schools would pay the stipends unless they're approved by the NCAA, Wilson said he expects that day will come. His bill would put the mechanism in place for if and when that happens, Wilson said.

Meanwhile, the issue of stipends has sparked conversations in the Big 12 Conference, where four Texas schools play.

A recent informal survey of Big 12 men's basketball coaches found that many would like to see stipends for players in revenue-producing sports.

"I think it's unrealistic to think these kids only need their education paid for and nothing else," Colorado coach Ricardo Patton said Monday during the Big 12 coaches' weekly conference call.

"I've coached kids whose parents are unable to send them anything other than a box of food," he said.

Baylor coach Dave Bliss, however, called the stipend idea "a Pandora's Box."

"I still am one of the 'old school' guys who feel the education and the opportunity to learn life skills ... is what really enhances their college experience," Bliss said.

 

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