The huge jump in Alabama’s COA stipend came as a result of transportation expenses being increased by 42% for in state students and a whopping 75.4% for out of state enrollees.
I guess everybody flies first class to Birmingham and takes a limo from there.
Get The Picture 
This was inevitable. Who is first to $10K? Bama, Auburn or Tennessee?
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Whoever finishes lower in the recruiting rankings this year.
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Yes.
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It’s one more big incentive for a Georgia or Florida high school athlete to leave their home state.
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Yep…
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This whole thing is ridiculous. I want to see if the UGA financial aid office is going to jump into the water with the Bammers, the Barners, and the Hillbillies. This is the tail wagging the dog.
Did anyone notice in the article that 60% of the freshman class at Alabama this year is from out of state? What does that say about the Alabama high school education system?
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The number of Ga. resident incoming freshmen to Bama will scare you. Look it up.
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Sniffer, please link your source.
Alabama is taking Auburn’s place as the UGA fallback for Georgia high school students.
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Alabama is, and has been, accepting anyone with a pulse. They have been passing out full academic scholarships for years, and it is about to bite them in the ass financially.
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Not really. What’s setting them back financially has been state budget cuts. That’s what’s driving the pursuit of out-of-state tuition revenue.
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I know of 3 different families in Florida that have kids who were offered full academic rides a bama, and nothing from any institution in Florida. There is no revenue there. Bama’s stated goal a few years ago was to increase undergrads as to be the largest university in the state. It is easy as hell to get into Alabama.
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I’ll see your anecdote and raise you another anecdote. Those scholarships are often pulled after a year because the recipient doesn’t usually carry a GPA over the required renewal threshold through freshman year (they’re betting on that through the use predictive modeling). Think of it as “academic oversigning.”
They do see some attrition once the scholarship is pulled. But, more often than not, students stay and pay out-of-state. It’s hard for them to walk away from a year’s worth of friends and familiarity.
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Is UAB’s enrollment more than Bama’s?
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This. The easiest and quickest way for a school to increase revenue while the state is constantly slashing funding is to increase enrollment. This brings in additional dollars through tuition. Out of state students pay FAR higher tuition. As Charles points out, scholarships are renewable on a yearly basis. The student may not make the necessary grades to remain eligible but even if he or she does, the school is under no obligation whatsoever to renew the scholarship. Once they’re enrolled and loving the place, students aren’t likely to come home. Now Mom and Dad are writing a big fat check. Not to mention that unlike athletic scholarships, academic scholarships usually require a student to pay for housing, meals, books and fees. So the school benefits even while providing tuition.
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The number of Georgia residents at Alabama has traditionally been pretty strong (a happy byproduct of the Hope Scholarship).
What’s changed over the past five years is (a) YAW YAW YAW FOOTBAW PAWWWWWLLLL on national TV every weekend and (b) states like Texas locking certain types of high school students out of their flagship campuses.
If little Madison can’t get into UT-Austin because she’s not quiiiiite in the Top 10% of her class in a WASPY suburb of Dallas, then Alabama is actually a fun alternative if her parents have the jack to handle the out of state tuition.
I’m not a fan of it. But, incentives matter.
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Charles, what you said goes double and in spades for the University of Georgia. If little Madison can’t get into the University of Georgia because she’s not quiiite in the Top 10% of her class in a WASPY suburb of Atlanta, than both Alabama AND Auburn are actually fun alternatives if her parents have the jack to handle the out of state tuition–and they will give her an academic (like the Hope) scholly to boot as an incentive!
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It doesn’t say anything about Alabama’s high schools that the stats already haven’t.
Now, the University of Alabama’s thirst for out of state tuition revenue, on the other hand…
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60% out-of-state students does not reflect poorly on HS education in Alabama. As a transplant from Georgia with a son who will be a HS senior this year, I can tell you that Alabama has some good and not so good high schools just like Georgia.
Actually, UA favors out-of-state students over qualified in-state students because the university can charge higher tuition rates for out-of-state students. It’s a money grab, not a lack of qualified in-state students. It will higher than 60% in a few years.
Got to pay for that waterfall in the training facility somehow!
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Ed. Zachary.
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Fair statement there about the high schools. If I were an Alabama taxpayer and saw those those numbers while my qualified child was denied admission, I would be raising hell with the politicians and with anyone who would listen.
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Thomas:
Bama is going after highly ranked out of state students, and offering nice incentives. Generally, the pitch is that if you’re a top tenth or top fifth student in high school, they’ll set your tuition at in state level.
We’ve got two going to Bama this year from a 3A school in Pawleys Island SC.
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That’s great, but to have 60% of your incoming freshman class come from out-of-state doesn’t seem to mesh very well with a public university’s mission to improve the quality of life of the people within the state. I don’t see how bringing in a student from out of state with the promise of in-state tuition when there is an equally qualified in-state student is good for the state of Alabama.
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It’s not. But, FOOTBAW. So, most folks are quite content.
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If we throw out tuition rates, does anyone really thinks it is that much more costly to attend Bama or Auburn than UGA? Give me a break!
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Exactly. Which is why I think that some standard can be set tat would avoid the collusion threat. There is no shortage of actual cost of living stats for a given community. I can honestly see Tech and Vandy students having a higher set of living expenses than the rest, but Knoxville? C’mon, or at least show some real data and not just some stuff you pulled out of your ass.
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Coyotes cost a lot of money to smuggle kids into Alabama.
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So basically universities are clamoring over themselves to pay “student athlete”, they just don’t want it to be called paying “student athletes” so they can keep the facade of holy amateurism. If they can find a way to hypocritically pay former players for their likeness, they could probably get some lawsuits thrown out.
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Is it even possible to fly first class into Birmingham? Isnt it Southwest and a bunch of commuter airlines? Southwest isn’t flying the Concorde or a 767 in there, is it? Isnt the Air Clio puddle jumper taking off from someone’s soybean field just to drop a couple of farmers off on their way to someplace with the accoutrements of civilization, like, say, Atlanta? Are the stipends going to be handed out in Alabama as rolled up hundreds, bound by rubber bands, in empty Maxwell House cans? Shouldn’t someone have to show some receipts or something as a basis for the calculations resulting in the cash that’s going to be handed out?
(did you know that writing a whole post in the second person is harder than you think? do you think Jay McInerney could do it at this point in his career?)
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This is just absurd. Completely predictable, yet absurd none the less. Schools pulling imaginary numbers out of thin air all in an effort to pay kids as much as possible. It does not matter that these kids do not deserve additional compensation. Now it’s a matter of which fanbase is willing to shell out the most cash. We all know that McGarity will not dip into the reserve fund, TV money or bowl payout cash to pay these kids. UGA will lose hard in this game. Apparent it is one step forward and two steps back. Ugh.
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Kayak has roundtrip from Norfolk, Va to Birmingham at $333. Same roundtrip to Atlanta, $313. Distance from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa, 70 miles. Distance from Hartsfield Jackson to Athens, 81.9 miles.
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Actually to fly into bham is pretty expensive. Flight from Greenville is around $400. So is Louisville and Charlotte is even more.
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There’s no way this isn’t fraud.
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^^This.
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I found ton of roundtrip flights from Greenville to Birmingham on Southwest for $209.
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how much for the extras, like a seat inside the plane?
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Extra charges are actually on other airlines for weird things like luggage and change fees. Southwest was considered a joke the first few years, but have been giving lessons on how to operate an airline to the “big boys” for years now. I screwed up and flew with Delta recently, they were the best back when I started flying regularly in the 70s, it will be my last trip on Delta. They such compared to Southwest, imo. They actually like their customers, novel idea.
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Sorry. I was only checking the real airlines that most people would feel confortable to fly on. I bet spirt will get you there for $100.
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But Spirit won’t land–they just get you over the destination and throw you out of the plane.
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For what it’s worth, I’ll offer one Bama fan’s opinion.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m secretly glad this happened for a couple of reasons. First, Saban has always exploited any loopholes or weaknesses in NCAA/SEC regulations. This is no different. There is no standard methodology or cap, so why not go as high as you can? I like having recruiting advantages. Who wouldn’t?
Secondly, this will hopefully force the league to rethink how it applies governance to COA. I’m glad that players have the chance to receive some monetary compensation, but there needs to be some sort of limit or standardization. Without it, I can certainly see Auburn, Tennessee or even my beloved Alabama pushing the $10,000 limit that Bright Idea suggests. And I don’t think that’s good for the league or for football in general. You’ll end up like MLB, with a group of teams that are the Yankees/Dodgers/Red Sox that can simply outspend everyone to stockpile talent.
The league needs to step in and either institute a hard cap or require intense audits of COA that drive significant transparency into the process.
Semi-related side question: I’m no financial aid expert so hopefully someone here can enlighten me. The article states that the figures are determined by the school’s financial aid office. What responsibility or accountability do financial aid offices have to the Federal Government as originators or educational loans? Are they required to show documentation to back up the COA? Or are they solely concerned with tuition, room and board?
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