Few sports are guaranteed funding as UNLV considers athlete stipends

By Taylor Bern

Saturday, May 16, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Change is everywhere at UNLV Athletics.

Physical changes, specifically installing a new air conditioner as part of the two-year renovation plan at the Thomas & Mack Center, have the department plotting out temporary offices as the temperature rises. Policy changes, specifically the full cost of attendance stipend about to become available to scholarship Division I athletes, have the department plotting out the possible ways to pay for the rising cost of staying relevant on a national recruiting scale.

“It remains to be seen if a student-athlete is going to choose by virtue of that but it becomes a competitive edge and at UNLV we want to be competitive,” said UNLV Athletic-Directory Tina Kunzer-Murphy said. “We’ve got to find a way to do it.”

So far the Rebels have found a way to support only their most high-profile program, men’s basketball, but they’ve committed to supplying the necessary funds for football and women’s basketball by Aug. 1, when cost of attendance legislation goes into effect. As for UNLV’s other 13 sports, Kunzer-Murphy said the department might not be able to fully provide for them all in the 2015-16 season.

“Maybe it’s not full cost of attendance. Maybe we divide up the money that we have and figure out how to do it,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “We absolutely know we’re going to do it. How we’re going to do it? We’re working on that.”

College athletics are often, and accurately, grouped into the “haves” and “have-nots” based primarily on conference affiliation that comes with it significantly larger revenue streams. In January those from the Power 5 conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) voted to offer full cost of attendance annually to their athletes.

A scholarship covers tuition, room, board, books and mandatory fees, and the additional funds from a full cost of attendance payment are meant to cover everyday things like transportation, school supplies, cellphone, laundry and miscellaneous items. By a vote of 79-1 — Boston College was the lone dissenter — the group of autonomous programs voted to make cost of attendance a mandatory part of a scholarship offer, leaving the rest of the country, including programs in the Mountain West, to decide whether to follow suit.

Since the stipend is created by financial aid offices and formulated based on factors including local cost of living and residency — in-state vs. out-of-state, on campus vs. off campus housing — it varies from state to state, program to program and student to student. UNLV has around 300 athletes on full or partial scholarship, and the department’s current estimate on the annual cost to provide full cost of attendance to them is $1.109 million, an amount that will change year to year.

“There’s been a lot of back and forth with the NCAA on exactly how to do this,” said Becky Pugh, assistant athletics director for compliance and student-athlete services, “but each student has their own cost of attendance, so it could vary for us from $2,500 to $5,200.”

The average that Kunzer-Murphy offered last week in Phoenix at the Mountain West’s annual meetings was $4,500, which would be the third highest in the league (see chart). UNR is one of the teams with a higher average, $4,800, but Wolf Pack Athletic Director Doug Knuth said they wouldn’t start offering full cost of attendance until 2016-17.

Every program outside the Power 5, which has plenty of money, is figuring out how to pay for this additional cost. Colorado State is using part of the $7 million buyout for football coach Jim McElwain, Wyoming and Utah State are getting some help from their state legislatures and San Jose State is covering its first year with a one-time $1.6 million payment from the university.

While UNR was the first Mountain West school to say it wouldn’t start offering cost of attendance for another year, UNLV is the first one to say it’s guaranteeing only some programs will get the benefit this season. Kunzer-Murphy has some plans to grow future revenue — most of them are in line with regular athletics fundraising efforts — but for now the only funds accounted for are men’s basketball, which will receive about $60,000 from the Runnin’ Rebel Club to cover the first season.

“We all know that the national landscape has changed,” UNLV men’s basketball coach Dave Rice said. “To be competitive in recruiting and on the court, it’s extremely important for us to have the funding to support full cost of attendance.”

UNLV’s estimates have football costing about $393,000 and women’s basketball at about $63,000, and while she doesn’t yet know where the money’s going to come from, Kunzer-Murphy guaranteed that those programs would be fully covered starting Aug. 1. The rest of the sports might have to split money from a bigger pot or wait a year for their piece of the pie, decisions that Kunzer-Murphy expects to keep the department busy through July.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do this summer,” she said.

Ideally the Rebels would wake up with a giant donation dropped at their door, but short of that Kunzer-Murphy is exploring long-term plans like more financial support from the university, a possible student fee increase and a larger percentage from the Thomas & Mack Center, which controls gameday revenue. UNLV will also use some of the money that comes in from football buy games, like upcoming trips to Michigan, Ohio State and USC, and Kunzer-Murphy suggested teaming with UNR’s Knuth to ask the legislature for more scholarship support.

“There’s not just one revenue stream that we’ve got to look at,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “We’ve got to look across the board.”

Some in college athletics, including Alabama football coach Nick Saban, have voiced concerns about how the cost of attendance implementation, and specifically the varying amounts offered, will affect recruiting. There’s an even bigger worry in the leagues that haven’t mandated the rule because the gap between offering it and not might be too much to overcome.

A prospective athlete looking at two programs that are mostly even would likely lean toward one offering full cost of attendance over one without, because over four or five years that could be an extra $16,000 to $25,000 in their pocket. That’s likely going to become a bigger part of the recruiting pitch moving forward but since this goes into effect prior for the 2015-16 season it’s already been part of the conversation.

“It has been a factor in the recruiting process and we’re grateful that we were able to say that we’re going to fully support,” Rice said.

The Rebels, who still have one scholarship available, went up against many Power 5 programs in assembling their incoming recruiting class. Even though the specific amounts differ, knowing it could offer the same new benefits as teams like Kentucky and Arizona might have helped, and at the very least didn’t hurt, UNLV.

Change is everywhere in college athletics. UNLV doesn’t have answers for everything but it’s working to keep up.

“We want to compete with the best,” Kunzer-Murphy said, “and you can’t do that without having the monies to compete.”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.