UND to Pay Cost of Attendance Stipends To all Scholarship Athletes

We now break away from our previously scheduled programming to bring you this breaking news. According to Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald; the University of North Dakota has entered the arms race and will now pay Cost of attendance stipends To all of their scholarship athletes.

Per the Grand Forks Herald:

UND will pay all scholarship athletes bonus stipends -- or full amended grant-in-aid as the school terms it -- beginning in 2016-17 season.

UND already offers the stipends to men's and women's hockey scholarship athletes.

The announcement comes six days after rival North Dakota State announced it would do the same.

UND estimates the cost at $3,400 for full scholarship athletes. Those on 90 percent scholarships would get 90 percent of the $3,400 and so on.

With their in-state rival North Dakota State University announcing last week that giving COA Stipends to their football team, UND had no choice but to jump into the arms race and make this happen. Or risk falling behind.  I am sure the other Big Sky schools will be thrilled with this decision or they now have to up the ante.

Some bloggers and news folks will grumble about public universities paying the COA's of student Athletes, but UND has no choice in the matter. If they want to remain competitive with the other Dakota schools, they have keep up with the Jonses.

Here's the official release from UND.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – University of North Dakota director of athletics Brian Faison announced today that UND Athletics will expand the awarding of full amended grant-in-aid to all student-athletes on athletic aid beginning with the 2016-17 academic year.

UND Athletics already provides full amended grant-in-aids for men’s and women’s ice hockey.

The value of a full amended grant-in-aid at the University of North Dakota is based on the total cost of mandatory fees and tuition (online tuition not included), room (as determined by the University for double occupancy) and board (based on the “Unlimited Meal Plus Plan” rate) and books (as determined by the NCAA), plus personal expenses (including transportation) as outlined by the Student Financial Aid Office for athletes. The specific amount for each student-athlete is determined by his/her residency status (i.e. in-state, out-of-state, etc.) and living situation (i.e. with parents or on/off campus).

“This is a necessary step that empowers our coaches to continue recruiting high-caliber student-athletes. It puts our coaches on equal financial footing when competing against regional peer institutions for the best recruits,” said Faison.

Faison added that details regarding funding will be evaluated and finalized over the next several weeks.