When it comes to recruiting, coaches at North Carolina State University have a lot to offer: top-notch facilities, a rabid fan base, and a history of success in many programs.
But this fall, as members of the Power Five conferences are set to begin covering the full cost of attendance for their athletes, N.C. State faces a significant challenge: The additional money its athletic department can offer players — $2,706 per year — is less than half of that budgeted by several of its peers in the competitive Atlantic Coast Conference.
In response, the university is considering a variety of moves, including reallocating its distribution from the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Student Assistance Fund to help entice recruits. Athletics leaders have also urged ACC officials to consider submitting a proposal to the NCAA that would allow major-college programs to finance players’ full cost of attendance, or provide up to $8,000 a year per player on top of tuition, fees, room and board, and books, to level the recruiting advantage that some institutions enjoy.
The ideas, detailed in dozens of emails obtained by The Chronicle in a public-records request, provide a window into a program looking to ratchet up its assistance for players despite limits on its published financial-aid figures. According to a Chronicle analysis of cost-of-attendance estimates at the 65 biggest programs, N.C. State’s number is just below the median, of $2,892. That means that more than half of the 65 most-powerful institutions are permitted to give players more money than N.C. State can.
Among the ideas described by N.C. State leaders is to tap the university’s share of the Student Assistance Fund — about $450,000 a year — to “more strategically help us with recruiting rather than making these funds available to all students,” as it has done in the past, according to a February 21 email from Carrie A. Doyle, the department’s head of compliance, to Deborah A. Yow, the athletic director.
In an interview on Monday, Ms. Yow emphasized that the emails reflected brainstorming by top officials from several months ago and that the university had not made any decisions about its cost-of-attendance quandary.
“There is no question the cost-of-attendance inequities have created a need to try to level the playing field in recruiting,” Ms. Yow said. “How much that gap can be closed, I don’t know.”
‘A Higher Dollar Value’
In recent years the university has used its distribution from the Student Assistance Fund to provide $300 to each of its full-scholarship athletes, with those on partial aid receiving smaller amounts. Players have used the money to buy clothing, computers, health insurance, and other items not covered by their scholarships.
In the February 21 email, Ms. Doyle proposed dividing the $450,000 by sport — for example, $200,000 for football, $100,000 for men’s basketball — and allowing coaches to decide how they wanted to allocate the money, assuming it was to be used for the direct benefit of athletes, as the NCAA requires.
Ms. Doyle also suggested that the university use an increased amount of its assistance-fund money to help cover the needs of certain athletes.
“Promise a guy that we would provide him with $5,000 in SAF funds for one year (or 2 or 3 or 4 …),” Ms. Doyle wrote. “That’s a very different model than giving a full scholarship SA [student-athlete] $400 per year.”
Ms. Yow said on Monday that at no time has the department seriously considered singling out recruits and offering them that amount of money. More recently, she said, the department has discussed providing all full-scholarship athletes with a certain amount while balancing the needs of female athletes.
Ms. Doyle said that the department has weighed providing more money to players than it does now, but that the $5,000 she proposed in February was not the right amount.
“If we’re going to provide a higher dollar value, we’re not going to land on $5,000, I’m almost sure of that,” Ms. Doyle said. “Even if we went to $1,000 or $1,500, the higher you go, the more important for that individual to be able to document that those funds are being used for a permissible purpose.
“We’re not going to provide $5,000 for a student-athlete,” she continued, “and just say, ‘Have fun, and oh, by the way, what are you going to use it for?’”
‘This New Environment’
Ms. Yow said that a specific amount was not under consideration, as her department must first evaluate its needs for the Student Assistance Fund.
In a March 5 email to colleagues, she discussed the use of the fund, and stressed looking for new ways to help players.
“As an athletics program, we will need to search for other legal means via our operating budget to provide additional services or financial support to stay competitive in recruiting,” she wrote. “We will use our SAF (Student Assistance Fund), of course, but others have that fund as well, so we do not gain ground in any significant way.”
The Student Assistance Fund is intended to provide direct benefits to athletes or their families as determined by conference offices, according to NCAA guidelines.
“As a guiding principle, the fund shall be used to assist student-athletes in meeting financial needs that arise in conjunction with participation in intercollegiate athletics, enrollment in an academic curriculum, or that recognize academic achievement,” the guidelines say. “It is encouraged that preference for the Student Assistance Fund continue to be given to those student-athletes who display a financial need for assistance.”
N.C. State has traditionally used part of its distribution from the fund to help athletes with the greatest financial need. In addition to the $300 each it has recently provided full-scholarship athletes, those who qualify for Pell Grants have received $500 more from the fund, Ms. Doyle said.
But as the university tries to stay competitive in recruiting, she said, that could affect the money that goes to certain players.
“As college athletics has changed rapidly during the last three to four years, it seems like our institution, as well as a lot of others, have tried to hang onto this as a need-based thing,” Ms. Doyle said. “But in this new environment of cost of attendance, it’s become harder to try to keep and maintain the use of that fund for our neediest student-athletes.”
Brad Wolverton is a senior writer who covers college sports. Follow him on Twitter @bradwolverton.
