Florida one of few FBS schools planning academic bonus payments to athletes
The NCAA began allowing schools to offer their student-athletes bonus payments for academic excellence in August 2020, which was later unanimously confirmed by the Supreme Court ruling NCAA vs. Alston in June 2021. Initially, based on a federal judge’s mandate, the association permitted payments up to $5,980 per year for good grades, a rate which was set because it was the equivalent to what they can earn for athletic achievements as well.
In a recent study conducted by ESPN that gathered information from public records requests and a voluntary survey, only 22 of the 130 FBS-level schools are set to provide these bonuses. Among those was the University of Florida, which was one of eight current SEC schools that plan on shelling out the incentive cash this year.
The other schools listed are Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa State, Kentucky, LSU, Miami, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Ole Miss, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Tech, Washington and Wisconsin.
More than one-third of the respondents were not even sure if they were even going to provide the additional benefits, despite any argument against its legality now being moot. There are 34 schools still undecided while 15 schools flat out said that they had no plans on providing the bonuses; 20 plan on extending the bonuses sometime in the future.
Speaking of the future, the next era of the sport is here and if schools want to keep up in the recruiting war, perks like these will be crucial in separating the upper echelon programs from the wannabes. The good news for Gators fans is that their beloved Orange and Blue appear to be ahead of the curve when it comes to compensating its student-athletes.
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