Cost of Attendance aka Scholarship Stipends

[yotesfan1985]

Two years ago the administration decided to pay scholarship stipends. I’m sure there are different opinions on whether this is appropriate or not. The question I asked myself recently was has it made a difference in the recruits that we have signed. With approximately five red shirt freshman or true freshman starting on both offense and defense and several more making significant contributions It has appeared to pay off. I would like to hear others thoughts

[obc]

Oct 29, 2017 19:54:57 GMT -6 yotesfan1985 said:

Two years ago the administration decided to pay scholarship stipends stipends. I’m sure there are different opinions on whether this is appropriate or not. The question I asked myself recently was has it made a difference in the recruits that we have signed and I would have to say that the answer is absolutely yes. Wirh approximately five red shirt freshman or true freshman starting on both offense and defense and several more making significant contributions I would say it has clearly paid off. I would like to hear others thoughts

I 100% believe it is a big deal. Good financial investments pay off. Spending money on better facilities, a deeper and more experienced coaching staff, and a stipend to compete for the best athletes in the geography USD recruits are showing results already. The FB team is just getting started seeing results. I fully expect USD to be a force at the FCS level for years to come.

USD has a tremendous amount to offer on the recruiting trail. No doubt the other Dakota schools do too and all of them will be top 10 programs as long as they have good coaching staffs that stay hungry. This success will be at the expense of other MVFC teams that do not make the same financial commitment. It is why we were able to get Nielson as HC. If WIU had followed through on the financial commitment at the same level that USD was prepared to do, he would not have left for another conference team IMO. How many wins does everyone think hiring Nielson has been worth this year?

Things are good now and will get better. Imagine in a few years when the Dome is fully renovated and we have several years building a roster with great depth. The FCS playoffs can be renamed the Dakota Football Challenge.

[Yotes]

Great topic for a discussion! I think it's very difficult for us to tell. The CoA implementation coincided with a new coaching staff, as well as some new facilities. We got to see just how good this staff is at building a program at Western Illinois, so it's no surprise that they've had success at USD (especially since this time they inherited a team that was already building towards something successful).

Really, when you think about it, CoA is just one more piece of an administration investing in athletics. I think it certainly has made an impact, but we will never know how large it was just because of everything else that has also changed. CoA on its own wouldn't have done anything if we weren't willing to pay for a decent staff or upgrade the facilities.

If I were a 17 or 18-year old, who probably thinks even $100 is a good chunk of change, and was split between two schools, an annual stipend of $4,000 would be a great influence. Do not think kids are picking USD just because we will give them money, but it's one more perk we can offer over SDSU and the over MVFC schools that won't offer it.

[Coyote Fan]

There is no question that it has helped so I would say the biggest question is, where does it rank in the hierarchy of importance in building a football program? The COA is just starting to have an impact so I say over the next 2 or 3 years is when it will be in full effect. That is when the majority of players on the roster will have been recruited with that advantage known during the recruiting process. I still say the head coach and his assistants is the #1 factor because basically everything goes through the head coach. He is the coach and GM of the team all in one. The financial commitment to the athletic department and football is obviously a big factor as well as that covers so much including COA. Obviously that financial commitment also pays for the facilities.

[yotefbfan]

Absolutely this is a big help in recruiting, but not just for football, as USD pays COA on all scholarships. Congratulations to the University to recognize that this needs to be across the board for all of our athletes based on their individual scholarships (ie: 100% scholarship gets 100% COA, while a 50% Scholarship gets 50% COA for all sports). Look at the success in all of USD athletic programs and you can see the impact COA has in recruiting. In football it helps makes us competitive not only in the MVFC but also with FBS schools as well. I attached a few articles regarding COA which began in 2015 as a result of the Power 5 conferences forcing the hand of the NCAA to help student athletes who between school and their commitment to their sport do not have time to have a part time job. It allows them to have that little extra spending money for a pizza or two and pay for the price of a train ticket home for the holidays. This eases the burden on families that may have not been able to support a child going to college even with tuition and room and board paid for by the scholarship. Remember the stories of student athletes selling their shoes, shirts or their autographs to get extra money? This now makes that practice unnecessary and also a clear violation of NCAA policy without discriminating against student athletes who may be coming out of poverty to attend college.

www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/12185230/power-5-conferences-pass-cost-attendance-measure-ncaa-autonomy-begins
www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/article/2015-09-03/cost-attendance-qa

[thebacksackdad]

It's obvious the University has made a commitment to bettering their athletic programs, not only by offering coa but also bettering their facilities and coaching staff. It's the total commitment by the university in doing the most they can for their athletes to succeed. Any program that is serious about winning a national championship has all these pieces in play. If they dont, it looks like smoke and mirrors and they can do all the song and dance the want, buy without the financial commitment, its all hollow and a recruit and their parents see right thru it. It's the university doing their part.

You have to have all these pieces in play to be seriously considered by any recruit that's sought after. However, it's not those pieces that make a recruit choose the school. ..it just gets them on a level playing field with those schools that have done the same. Ultimately. ..the athlete wants to be a champion. ..and it's the confidence a recruit has, in their contact with the staff, of success that makes the recruit choose the school.