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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1987)
Wednesday, February 11, 1987/The Battalion/Page 9 Sports llowances for scholarship athletes ay become necessity of college life Editor’s note: This is the first seer eg- the question of whether an athlete on mhohirship should be given an al- ■ira/ice for monthly living ex penses. By Doug Hall Sports Writer ■ With the New Year’s Day bowl games barely a month behind us, al ready college football programs are making the papers — this time to see who wins the bidding wars for the country’s top high school prospects. ■ These same prospects will attend their selected schools next fall and be put on either full or partial ath letic scholarships. IA full athletic scholarship to a ma jor college constitutes free room, Dpard, books, tuition and related fees. Partial scholarships vary in many formats to cover some, but not all ot the above mentioned costs. ■ But as any student knows, living an active college life incurs more ex penses than room and board. It in volves spending money, clothes al lowances, laundry expenses and general living costs. Yet an NCAA rule says scholarship athletes aren’t ■owed to work during the school semesters to earn extra money. ■ So naturally, if the athlete comes from a family that can’t afford to fund this extra money, how do pcholarship athletes earn spending income? madder than all get out, and 1 began to really go after him. ” But Killingsworth said the player looked at him and said, “Coach, I came to you to ask for money and you said you couldn’t give it to me. I tried to work, but you said I couldn’t do that. So I decided to steal hub caps because it was the only thing I could do to make money that wasn’t against NCAA rules.” Killingsworth, a 15-year veteran in the coaching field, echoed the thoughts of many collegiate coaches who believe scholarship athletes look at it from the aspect of the money grad students receive to the number of hours they work and the revenue they produce. “And then look at the number of hours athletes are involved with pre paration, practice, training and play ing. Compared to the number of hours athletes work, they certainly bring in a lot more money. “But there is more to consider than just money. I think the univer sities need to make some kind of commendation to the athletes.” Another advantage to athletes re ceiving this type of allowance. inciM | i S«| Jent el 1985,11 thenM hl9§| ueiiiyl langerf iresw;| up txl PressEl brm. pi sure is | ;ip. I re erpfj be id B Jim Killingsworth, head basketball coach at Texas Christian University, tells the story of a player who came to him in need of spending money. Killingsworth said he couldn’t help the player because it wotdd violate N( ',AA rules. ■ Three weeks later, Killingsworth spotted the same player working at a part-time job and was forced to tell the player he couldn’t work while Hitler scholarship because it violated NCAA policy. ■ “Three months later, I was sitting in my office when the police brought this same kid in to me and told me h^’d been stealing hubcaps,” Kill- irlgsworth said. “Naturally, 1 was should be provided with a monthly living allowance when he said, “it just doesn’t make any sense to me.” Dr. Steven Picou, professor of sports sociology at Texas A&M and a former college basketball player, also thinks athletes should be pro vided with what he calls “laundry money.” Picou said during his playing days, athletes were given $15 laun dry money a month to cover minor living expenses. This practice, how ever, was discontinued almost 10 years ago. “A college can go out and recruit top graduate students and pay their school costs as well as provide monthly living expenses (some fellowships and scholarships pay grad students between $7500 to $12,000 a year),” Picou said. “So according to Picou, is tbe possibility that it would cut down on the num ber of illegal infractions incurred when boosters give financial assis tance to athletes. “Tbe reason that so much of that (under-the-table cash) goes on is be cause there are a lot of economically disadvantaged kids on scholarships,” Picou said. “They need money to get by on. With the allowance, the temp tation to take the cash would he less.” Picou said he has heard sugges tions of anywhere from $50 to $500 as the appropriate monthly pay ment, but realizes that no matter what the number, this type of allow ance is a difficult problem with no simple answers. Among the questions opponents to this allowance ask are: • Where will the money come from to pay this fund? • Does this allotment go to all athletes on scholarship or just ones who play in revenue-producing sports? • Will the financial burden cut out non-revenue producing sports? • Will the added costs cut down on the number of scholarships pro vided and thus cut down actual number of players who benefit? Desjnte the many questions yet to be answered, Picou predicts some type of financial aid will be provided within the next two to three years. Dennis Robinson, an assistant commissioner for the Southwest Conference, said the NCAA ap proved legislation at its January meeting that allows the individual divisions to set down their own guidelines concerning allowance payments to scholarship athletes. In doing so, Robinson said the NCAA provided the divisions with the flexibility necessary to accomo date the different-sized schools. He also said people were begin ning to realize that athletes need more money to go to school on than just an allowance for necessities. “I would say there is a pervasive feeling amongst the administrators that players need to be given money to get by on.” Robinson went on to say that such an allowance would indeed be a fi nancial burden on the universities, but that in all probability, the pay ments would be done on a need ba sis. “If a kid gets a scholarship to play tennis at USC and his father owns his own company, then that would be looked at differently than a kid whose parents can’t provide any ex tra money.” Texas A&M President Dr. Frank Vandiver, in a statement issued through his office late last week, said he was definitely in favor of athletes receiving some type of allowance. He suggested $150 to $200 per month or some other reasonable number. Lady ’Horns dispose of Lady Aggies By Loyd Brumfield Assistant Sports Editor The Texas A&M women’s basketball team suffered a 96-50 drubbing at the hands of the top-ranked Univer sity of T exas Lady Longhorns at the Frank Erwin Events Center in Aus tin Tuesday. The loss drops the Lady Aggies to 8-13 overall and 4-7 in Southwest Conference play, while Texas im proves to 22-1 and 12-0 in the SWC. Despite the scoring difference, the Lady Aggies gave the Lady Longhorns all they could handle, until UT’s advantage in experience and depth began to show. “We came out like we weren’t afraid of them,” A&M Coach Lynn Hickey said. “We worked very hard in the first half and there were some bright spots.” Paula Crutcher, a senior forward, led the Lady Aggies in scoring with 12 points. “It takes courage to come to a f ilace like this and play before such a ull crowd,” Hickey said. Paula Crutcher Assists and blocked shots played a big jnirt in the Lady Longhorns’ vic tory. UT had 24 assists compared to just nine for A&M, while turnovers were fairly even as A&M had 27 and UT had 20. “We’re plagued by injuries,” Hickey said. “No one can replace (guards) Donna Roper and Beth Young and expect to win against the best team in the country.” A&M got some some good news when Roper, sidelined by gall blad der surgery, was cleared to play against Texas Tech Saturday at 7:30 in Lubbock. A&M women's tennis team racks up 4th straight victory By Ed Bodde Assistant Sports Editor The Texas A&M women’s ten nis team went to 4-0 for the sea son by shutting out the University of Texas-San Antonio Tuesday afternoon. A&M Coach Bob Kleinecke said he was particulary pleased with the Aggies 9-0 victory be cause of the good play in both sin gles and doubles. “Our goal was to play good sin gles and good doubles,” he said. “Sometimes we do good in one or the other. Today, everybody did a good job. We had control the whole time.” A&M didn’t drop a set the en tire day, and any chance of a UTSA upset was over when the Aggies raced through the first six singles matches. A&M’s No. 1 player, Kim La- buschagne, defeated Suzy Weiser 6-1, 6-0, and the No. 4 player, Cindy Crawford, breezed past Becky Gordon 6-0, 6-0 to get the Aggies off to their quick start. “We played really well in sin gles,” Kleinecke said. “Those were some quick matches.” Kleinecke said the team is about where it needs to be, but added that the match against Louisiana State on Friday signals a whole new season. “LSU’s tougher; they’ll push us hard,” he said. He said he hopes there is a good fan turnout for the match Friday. “It’s going to be a tough season because we’re playing so many top-ranked schools,” Kleinecke said. i 0 ’-* ° , Y'**o*“•Y-**o * ’o 0 ’** • • • • * o Q, <y.. •o* • o - m m • • • • • o’ Q, > ^ • Q> # o Q \ Fi 6) Q ♦ Skaggs Shopping Center 6) Q a, o, 3Si ' • Q 0. 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