Tensions rise as NCAA looks into student-athlete compensation
Student-athletes hoping for scholarships or stipends saw a glimmer of hope on Sunday when Mark Emmert, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, discussed potential compensation changes, as well as the possibility of creating a college football playoff system.
Emmert told USA Today reporters that he is investigating the way in which Division I is organized for the purposes of making decisions and not purely to decide on a new championship format.
"There are inherent tensions in the structure, and always have been," Emmert told USA Today.
Earlier this month, Emmert offered his support for a college football four-team championship bracket.
"I can see a lot of ways in which a Final Four model can be very successful," Emmert said, "And if people want to go that way, I think it makes good sense."
The four-team playoff was first suggested for college football in 2008 and would consist of two national semifinals and a championship game that would be played one week later.
Patrick Quinlivan, a senior at Boston College and former co-associate sports director at BC’s WZBC Radio, was not surprised by Emmert’s suggestion of a college football championship game.
“This was just a matter of time,” Quinlivan said, “A four-team playoff was a long time coming.”
Indeed, looking at the viewership of the recent BCS Championship game may suggest that the Bowl is faltering.
The 2012 BCS Championship match-up between the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University had record low viewership and sharply contrasted with Alabama and LSU’s regular season match-up on Nov. 5, 2011 that set record high viewership and was CBS’s most watched regular season college football game in 22 years.
Quinlivan attributed the discrepancy of viewership between the championship and regular season games to a lack of interest, and said a four-team play-off structure would greatly benefit the sport.
“This year’s National Championship game was a month after college football had already ended, it was not a good game and plus we had just seen the teams play in November,” said Quinlivan. “The four-team play-off structure is a more positive viewing experience. Every other NCAA sport except football has a championship game. Having it would add more credibility to the winner and to the sport.”
Chris Lane, a sophomore at Endicott College, agreed with Quinlivan.
“By implementing a four-team playoff system, college football would be able to add an excitement to their game (that) they have never experienced before, without losing any of the glory of the bowl games that make college football so unique and special,” Lane said.
Emmert is also looking to restructure the NCAA Division I to give more scholarship money to student-athletes.
According to USA Today, one such reform offers an additional $2,000 stipend and another permits schools to award multi-year scholarships instead of one-year renewable grants.
Emmert said that such scholarships and stipends would attempt to equalize the revenues of Division I schools, but he realizes his suggestions are very controversial.
"There's no doubt that these initiatives and these reforms have exacerbated some. . .tensions," Emmert said to USA Today.
Lane, a student-athlete himself, said the stipends and scholarships were a “horrendous” suggestion.
“These kids are blessed enough to be attending these institutions for free -- they shouldn’t be treated like professionals, they should be treated for what they are – student-athletes. If student-athletes need money, they need to do what the rest of the studious world does and either take out loans or get a job,” Lane said.
Changes to either the championship bracket or scholarship structure of college football are not expected to manifest until the 2013 or 2014 season. Discussions within the NCAA will continue over the coming months.
Kendall Bitonte is a Fall 2011 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. You can learn more about her here.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.