West Virginia University will now pay student athletes for their labor.
Athletes Director Shane Lyons has announced the Mountaineer Academic Incentive Program where qualifying scholarship athletes who meet certain criteria will get an annual check of $5,980.*
The athletes should find it relatively easy to qualify for the money—remain academically eligible with at least a 2.0 average and not violate the student code of conduct. Additionally, students cannot be in the transfer portal at the time of payment.
“They (scholarship athletes) are earning that as we speak right now,” Lyons said on Monday’s Talkline. “This coming September, if they are academically eligible and they are returning to West Virginia, about the middle of September is when we will do the payment.”
Student athletes on partial scholarships will receive a prorated payment, however, coaches and administrators have discretion to award more.
Colleges are now permitted to pay athletes under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alston decision. The high court ruled 9-0 in favor of former WVU football running back Shawne Alston and struck down the NCAA’s restrictions on “education-related benefits.” As a result, college athletic departments are beginning to share a portion of their revenue with their athletes.
WVU is one of only a handful of schools to budget the money ($1.5 million for this year) and embrace the concept. An ESPN survey found “only 22 of the 130 FBS-level schools say they have plans in place to provide these academic bonus payments to their athletes this year.” (Five of those are schools are in the Big 12.)
The academic payments should not be confused with name, image and likeness opportunities where student athletes can market themselves and colleges or boosters can raise private dollars to entice and pay athletes. NIL has created a pay-to-play dynamic which is already having a dramatic impact on recruiting and transfers.
However, the academic payments are, in one way, more important. Most student athletes are not going to earn NIL money, but they are essentially “employees,” working hard and putting in countless hours.
Those employees of primary revenue sports—football and sometimes basketball—amount to cheap labor. They are generating huge dollars for athletic departments that help pay for non-revenue sports, ever-increasing coach and staff salaries and facilities.
Yes, they receive scholarships, which have value. However, according to NCAA figures, the amount or revenue that goes toward student athletics aid is the same as coach compensation—19 percent—even though there are far more athletes than coaches.
Props to Shane Lyons and WVU for creating the incentive program. College athletics are big business, and it is about time the performers received a share of the revenue. If the NCAA and colleges had been more willing to consider spreading the wealth ten years ago, they might have avoided the mess they are in today.
*(ESPN reports, “The oddly specific dollar amount ($5,980) was calculated during the legal proceedings (in the Alston case) because it is equal to the maximum amount of financial value an athlete can receive in one year from awards related to their athletic performance, such as conference player of the year or the Heisman Trophy.”)