🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Anyone read Keegs latest article about the increase in pay for the student athletes. But Keegs got lazy and didn't break it all the way down for us. Guess he is too busy watching the Kardashian show...

Student athletes (SAs) living off campus will get a $1,230 check every academic month for a total of $12,300 per academic year to cover room, board and living expenses. This year they are tacking on another $364 per month or $3,640 per year. In total that's nearly $16,000 ($15,940) for the entire academic calendar year (10 months).

Per NCAA guidelines SAs can only participate in 20hrs of activities per week during the season (^1) and 8 hours per week in the off-season(^2).

Seasons are around 6 months long for the two major sports. Football is August to December or January. Basketball is October to March or April.

For the months that the SAs sport is in season they can work the maximum 20hrs each week. Six months is about 27 weeks. At 20 hours per week the total in-season hours worked equals 540.

In the off-season if the SA again works that maximum number of hours a week (8hrs) allowed for the finals 4 months (18wks) they would pick up an additional 144 hours.

Now add the off-season total to the in-season total to get the maximum hours worked by a SA and we get 684 total hours worked during the 10 month academic year.

To figure the hourly wage just divide the $15,940 by total hours of 684 and they get $23.30 per hour that they work.

Not too shabby for a college student.

I'm sure their fellow students working at Target, Steak & Shake, for the University itself, ect. would love to make $23.30 with tuition paid.

1 - NCAA Bylaw 17.1.5.1 During the Playing Season
A student-athlete's participation in countable athletically related activities shall be limited to a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week. For a multi-sport student-athlete, the daily and weekly hour limitations apply separately to each sport in which s/he participates.

2 - NCAA Bylaw 17.1.5.2 Weekly Hour Limitations-Outside of Playing Season
Outside of the playing season during the academic year, only a student-athlete’s participation in the countable athletically related activities specified in Bylaws 17.02.1-(c ), 17.02.1-(d ), 17.02.1- (e ) and in Divisions I-A and I-AA football, participation in the countable athletically related activities specified in 17.02.1-(a)-(6) shall be permitted. A student-athlete’s participation in such activities shall be limited to a maximum of eight hours per week, of which not more than two hours per week may be spent on individual skill workouts set forth in Bylaws 17.02.1-(e ) and 17.1.5.2.1, and in Divisions I-A and I-AA football, the viewing of game film per 17.02.1-(a)-(6). A student-athlete may not participate in any countable athletically related activities outside the playing season during any institutional vacation period (e.g., summer, academic year).

@Kip_McSmithers

"... to cover room, board and living expenses."

They have to pay rent for those killer new dorms? Hmmm... $1800 per month? ;-)

@drgnslayr

The new digs are not consider off campus living; they are just another on campus student living, albeit a very, very nice one...

When you also consider the free tuition and book and tutors and coaches and trainers and training facilities, it is not a bad gig...if you can get it.

@JayHawkFanToo

Sounds good to me... I'll take it!!!

This has been my argument for years against pay for student athletes. They already get paid some sort of stipend plus tuition depending on the scholarship.

I've learned living around LSU here that a lot of DI college athletes don't receive full scholarships. Baseball for example has 11 (I think that's the correct #) scholarships, which they split among the 35 rostered players. I'm not sure if this is the practice nationwide, but I assume it is.

@wissoxfan83 from http://www.scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html ↗ ↗

"Most NCAA varsity programs are equivalency sports which means awards can be split into partial scholarships in any proportion up to the maximum allowed. For example, an NCAA Division I school can allocate a number of partial athletic scholarships equivalent to 11.7 full scholarships in any proportion among, say, 25 baseball players.

Full scholarships are relatively rare in equivalency sports. An additional caveat is that there is a top limit of the number of athletes that can be awarded even a partial scholarship in an equivalency sport - this limit is referred to as the maximum number of counters. For NCAA I baseball teams the maximum number of counters allowed is 27.

There are fewer NCAA head- count sports than equivalency sports; head count sports mean the stated scholarship limit is absolute, and the number of student athletes receiving awards cannot exceed this number. NCAA I football and basketball are headcount sports..."

I'm not sure what the maximum amount of official training hours is allowed per day. It's important to keep in mind that SA will have practice, weighting training, and tutoring all mandatory. Than the coaches and us fans expect them to put in hours a day on their own to get better and make strides as a basketball player.

Again, I'm not sure of the official time that is allowed for a team. But lets simply say there is a 2 hour practice, 1 hour weight training, and some days they get tutored for an hour. Lets add another 2 hours a day for shooting around/pickup games on their own time. And how many of them do extra conditioning on their own? What about studying the playbook or watching film? We are looking at the SA doing roughly 4 to 5 hours a day on just basketball related activities.

Than to be a full time student, we are looking at a minimum 12 class hours but to graduate in four years, they will be taking a minimum of 15 class hours (depending on your degree, it's probably more).

Add those numbers up and their life is at least an 8 hour day. Like a normal work day. I can't imagine working 20 hours a week on top of that! That means they are putting 12 hours a day not including homework! For the sake of argument, lets assume they are good students like we expect them to be and putting in at least 2 hour a day doing homework or studying. That means if they start their day at 8 a.m. their day will be done at 10 p.m. Kind of a crazy week, isn't it? Not to mention we are asking a 19 year old to have no social life.

Those numbers of working how much they make per hour to me seems misleading.

To me, I view college basketball as a great internship for the NBA. Great experience and a resume builder to get a higher paying job in the workplace.

@ParisHawk Thanks for the clarification.

@JhawkAlum I met the father of a KU walkon under Roy and he said 6 hours a day. Show up one hour before practice to get dressed and taped. Cool off and shower after practice - that time is outside practice but you have to spend it.

Tutoring is not a sport-related activity, but I wouldn't count it either as something the SA is "paid" to do - it's rather a goody that others would pay to have.

@ParisHawk If it's required by the basketball program, I would say it's basketball related.

@JhawkAlum said:

@ParisHawk If it's required by the basketball program, I would say it's basketball related.

The walkon's father said 6 hours a day. He didn't count tutoring.

If you add tutoring as basketball related, why not say attending classes is basketball related, since that is definitely required by the basketball program?

In stark contrast to my own undergrad and graduate university experience, financially strapped and shuffling along on low paying campus employments while participating in "equivalency sports," current full scholarship athletes are eating quite high on the proverbial hog. Granted, they are bringing in millions of dollars to top level programs and are deserving of a comfortable slice of that pie. But for some of them, public exposure and university stardom becomes a springboard to almost instant humongous wealth when they depart Div One. If I held a chair on the current National Labor Relations Board I most probably would have concurred with their recent rulings.

@ParisHawk Very simple. Attending class is expected from all students. Tutoring isn't expected for the regular student but it's mandatory for the SA.

@JhawkAlum Are you sure about that? It probably varies from school to school. I am a former SA and tutors were not required. It was more of an as-needed basis. I find it hard to envision KU telling Perry Ellis former valedictorian that he needs to use a tutor.

@RockkChalkk From what I've read, it appears to be mandatory for KU basketball players. Players have had to sit out a game for skipping it.

@JhawkAlum Ok, I can see how you interpreted that. I know what articles you are referencing and I still think it only applies to some players. You could very well be right but based on my experience, the way I have seen this sort of thing work is where tutoring would be required for a player if his GPA drops below a certain level or if his/her grade in a particular class drops below a certain level based on early feedback from professors. So if you fall into this category, then tutoring may be required for a class or two or whatever. Self disciplined a player for being late to his tutoring and didn't start him because of it but I don't think that we can conclude from this that all players are subject to mandatory tutoring. We just know that some players have mandatory tutoring.

Man, you know its a slow day when this is the topic at hand.

Impressive how the NCAA and member schools could suddenly come up with $160M bones.

Bet they could x 10 that without sweating. The Ox is ready for goring.

@RockkChalkk Oh, I must have misunderstood. Thanks for clearing that up!

So true! We need something in the recruiting world to give us something to talk about.

The financial planners can now raise their fees for players!