Is academic excellence less important than athletic excellence?

The NCAA and its member schools want you to believe they value academic excellence just as much as athletic excellence when it comes to collegiate athletics. However, we have seen that many schools place a higher value on athletic excellence to the detriment of the athletes’ academic excellence. According to ESPN, “Only 22 of 130 NCAA FBS-level schools say they have plans to provide allowed academic bonus payments to athletes this year.”

The world of collegiate athletics was shaken up back in March 2021 when the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA and allowed, among other things, college athletes to monetize their name, image, and likeness. In August 2021, the NCAA allowed schools to “pay each of their athletes up to $5,980 per year as a reward for academic performance.” This amount is equal to the amount college athletes can receive for awards related to their athletic performance.

However, ESPN found that many schools have not made a commitment to pay these academic bonuses to their college athletes.

Schools are not required to provide any new benefits or cash bonuses, but have the option to do so. Of the 130 schools contacted, 101 provided a response. Among the findings:

• Twenty-two schools said they have plans in place to reward their athletes with payments for good grades this semester.

• Thirty-four said they have not yet decided if or when they will start to pay academic bonuses.

• Twenty said they will not make bonus payments this year, but plan to make them in the future.

• Fifteen said they have no plans to pay academic bonuses.

• Ten responded to public records requests by saying they have no relevant documents of a plan to share, or by providing documents that disclosed no information about an existing plan to make academic bonus payments.

Since the publication of ESPN’s article on Apr 6, 2022, other schools have made announcements they intend to provide academic benefits to their students.

• University of Nebraska

• West Virginia University

• Iowa

If you are a school looking to truly invest in your college athletes and make them well-rounded, then it is imperative to put an emphasis on incentives for academic achievement. College coaches are already receiving huge monetary bonuses when their athletes achieve academic excellence. School rivalries will start to come out now in academic benefits. If you are a school in Texas for example, and you see that the University of Texas and Texas Tech are on this list and you aren’t, that should light a competitive flame inside your athletic department.

Which schools do you think will be on the list next?