MORGANTOWN — The WVU athletic department announced Monday it will provide its scholarship student-athletes in all sports with the opportunity for additional financial assistance up to $5,980, based on their academic achievement, progress toward graduation and conduct away from the playing field.
Only WVU athletes on a full scholarship would be eligible for the full amount of $5,980, which will be paid each September, beginning this year.
WVU athletes on a partial scholarship would receive a pro-rated amount. For example, if a baseball player is on a 30% scholarship, he would earn 30% of the stipend, or $1,794.
WVU football, as well as men’s and women’s basketball are the only sports that provide full scholarships for all of its athletes. All other sports generally hand out partial scholarships to make out a full roster.
Scholarship limits for each sport are set by the NCAA.
The additional financial stipend is a result of the 9-0 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in NCAA vs. Alston, in which the court upheld a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that struck down NCAA caps on student-athlete academic benefits.
“Our student-athletes work extremely hard to succeed in the classroom and sometimes those efforts are overshadowed by what’s happening in competition,” West Virginia Director of Athletics Shane Lyons said. “Based on the Supreme Court ruling, the Mountaineer Academic Incentive Program now gives us the opportunity to enhance the student-athlete experience, which is paramount in our department.”
With the legal victory in the Alston case, some student-athletes are now eligible to receive a yearly academic incentive award of $5,980. That amount is the standard maximum across the country, although other conferences or schools could decide to pay less.
The Big 12 Board of Directors voted to allow its member schools to provide up to the full yearly amount.
In order to receive the stipend, WVU athletes must meet three criteria:
** The student-athlete must be academically eligible.
** The student-athlete can’t be in the transfer portal at the time of payment.
** Payment is subject, not only to academic success, but to a review of the student-athlete’s record of conduct through WVU’s Office of Student Conduct.
An athlete’s grade-point average is not a criteria to receive the stipend. As for the conduct review, WVU could decide to subtract a certain amount from the stipend from an athlete who may get in some form of legal trouble off the field.
To fund the payments, WVU will invest $1.5 million yearly in the Mountaineer Academic Incentive Program.
“It’s an additional financial responsibility that we now have to budget accordingly, and hopefully we will be able to supplement the funding in the future through fundraising initiatives,” Lyons said. “The end result is that we are rewarding academic success each year, to the full amount permissible, and putting additional emphasis on obtaining a college degree, which not only is a win for our student-athletes, but also for our university.”
Only WVU athletes who have completed a full year of residency are eligible, meaning incoming freshmen, junior-college recruits or athletes enrolling from the transfer portal in 2022 won’t be eligible to receive payment until Sept. 2023.
This past fall, WVU placed 341 athletes on the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll with 84 student-athletes earning a 4.0 GPA.
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