NCAA to Reimburse Athlete’s Families for Travel to Championships
It was a bit too long, and slightly caustic, but the original headline for this was “NCAA does something nice, inserts foot in mouth”.
Immediately following the instant-classic Alabama-Ohio State playoff game on New Year’s Day, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was adamant during his post-game interview that, with their sons about to play in the historic first-ever championship game in the post-BCS era, the families of the student-athletes deserved some help with the travel expenses they would accrue going to see their sons compete for a national title.
From a Fox Sports report on Meyer’s statement:
“My concern, and I think I’m probably going to address it again, is what are we doing for these families? Are we going to get their families to Dallas? We should,” Meyer said. “That should happen immediately…there should be an immediate committee meeting somewhere to say how do we help these families that can’t afford this travel?”
“Let’s get them to Dallas and watch their sons play in college football history. And I hope you all write that. That’s more important than anything else being said today. These players who played their hearts out for the Ohio State University, for the Big Ten Conference and for college football, let’s get their families there so they can watch them play.”
Say what you want about Meyer as a recruiter, or for the, ahem, questionable legal reputations of many of his former Gator teams, but that’s a solid point.
Minor problem, though: under current NCAA rules, the only way a university can help with families traveling to games is from a Student Assistance Fund. Other minor problem: per the article referenced above, the limit per player is $800. If you’ve looked at airfare within the last, oh, decade, your average citizen is surely aware that, especially on ultra-late notice (the Buckeyes are leaving for New Orleans on January 9th), there’s a decent chance $800 for airfare won’t cut it. And keep in mind, that’s $800 per player. Put another way, here’s what a typical football player might have to decide. Do I want my mom to see this game? Or my dad? Or my brother?
Fortunately for players and their families, per a press release from the NCAA and CFP today, the NCAA announced plans to provide reimbursement (key word) up to $1,250 per parent or guardian, for up to two people, that can be used for travel expenses such as flights, hotels, and meals. The NCAA also announced a waiver that will allow the College Football Playoff to come up with a plan to pay family travel and lodging/meal expenses for future playoff games.
While this is wonderful news in the moment, it can’t help but reek of last-minute public relations damage control like tuna in the break room microwave. The NCAA has suspended numerous players just within the last few years, such as UConn guard Ryan Boatright (6 games), Texas guard Myck Kabongo (23 games) and more recently, Georgetown center Moses Ayegba (1 game), for accepting plane tickets bought by others, frequently during the recruitment process. In Ayegba’s situation, it involved a plane ticket from his home country of Nigeria that was purchased by his high school basketball coach.
Recap time! The NCAA had no problem suspending players, at times for up to an entire season (Kabongo later had his suspension reduced to 23 games), if they accepted help with travel expenses before, oh, a week ago. But, in an admittedly unexpected coup, Urban Meyer gets a microphone after the ratings-record-setting Crimson Tide/Buckeyes clash, and the NCAA starts whistling a different tune five days later.
That’s not a slight on Meyer at all – but it sure does look like an example of the NCAA changing something hoping to avoid a 9,478th trip getting dragged through the mud. Observant basketball fans will recall UConn guard Shabazz Napier’s interview before the national championship last year when he said there were nights he went to bed “starving”, since he couldn’t afford food outside of his meal plan. Almost immediately following last year’s Final Four championship, and after Napier’s comments hit major news outlets like CNN and ESPN, the NCAA approved legislation that allowed Division I athletes to receive unlimited meals and snacks, as opposed to the old standards.
It’ll be great to know that, hopefully, most or all of the student-athletes competing in the first-ever college football playoff championship will have one or two family members there to cheer them on. But let’s pump the brakes on patting the NCAA’s back when the old policy probably pre-dated the VCR.