Femovich statement on PL merit aid plan

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Football Femovich statement on PL merit aid plan

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  • #506
    RichH
    RichH
    Participant

    I’m lousy at links AGS just posted from NCAA news Femovich’s statement on PL plan and timing. I find it asinine in parts and depressing. I am much less optimistic now of anything happening at all.She does refer to most of the issues that all of us have discussed ad nauseum. title IX and economy noted as main stumbling blocks as we all know. BUT she seems to harp on non schollie basis for PL as a con to merit aid while at the same time pointing out the "philosophical "approval of such aid in every other sport :roll:

    Even if PL does OK merits it will not start until 2012. OK says she because FU wont be too far ahead of rest of PL. HUH . FU 2 merit classes PL 0?

    What about PL and the rest of FCS . Keeping up with the Pioneer not really my idea of progress. Damn

    AGS deleted thread, no idea why, can go to ncaa.org press release as of today

    #507

    808Lehigh
    Participant

    Jul 21, 2009 8:40:20 AM

    The NCAA News

    Fordham has declared its intent to offer athletics scholarships for football student-athletes beginning in 2010, and the Patriot League now will grapple with whether to allow its member institutions to follow suit.

    The league’s presidents will decide by December 31, 2010, what direction to take.

    Executive Director Carolyn Femovich said several factors will influence the Patriot League’s decision, including economic conditions, Title IX requirements, and the history and tradition of the conference as one that does not offer football athletics aid.

    Fordham will remain a full member of the Patriot League in 2009 and become an associate member for the 2010 season. If the conference decides to allow its schools to offer football scholarships, it could remain a full member of the league.

    The decision to award athletics aid to football players at Fordham had little to do with economics. Unlike most institutions in the Patriot League, Fordham counted need-based aid given to football players toward its gender-equity limits under Title IX. The school already offered a comparable number of athletics scholarships to women as to men.

    At most Patriot League schools, however, the need-based aid awarded to football players is not counted toward gender-equity limits. Therefore, if other institutions in the conference were to move toward awarding athletics aid in football, they also would need to award a comparable amount of athletics aid to female student-athletes to meet generally accepted Title IX requirements. For example, if a school were to offer 60 scholarships in football, it would need to offer 60 scholarships to female student-athletes as well.

    For Fordham, which already counted its need-based aid as a scholarship for gender-equity purposes, the scale is already balanced. The school simply repackaged its dollars to be more strategic and assist in the recruitment of football student-athletes. (The school outlines its decision and its repercussions in a detailed Q&A document.) Most Patriot League schools do not count that way, and any move toward allowing the scholarships could be cost-prohibitive for them.

    Additionally, the original Patriot League philosophy was grounded in treating student-athletes like the rest of the student body, especially with respect to academics and financial aid. The conference began as a football conference in the mid-1980s, expanding to a multisport league in 1990-91.

    “To a certain degree, there is a sense that this is why we came together, this is how football developed and this is something we want to preserve,” Femovich said. “We just believe philosophically that it’s important to treat student-athletes like other students with regard to financial aid. But the reality is all of our institutions have begun awarding scholarships in other sports, certainly in men’s and women’s basketball … We have evolved as a league to a position of athletics aid being permissive in all sports of an institution’s choosing – except football.”

    Femovich called the decision to offer basketball scholarships (made in the mid-1990s) “philosophical and practical.” Most Patriot League schools also offer aid in other sports, at varying levels.

    The behavior of the economy over the next 18 months likely will influence discussions among the league’s remaining full members. The conference executives hope to see an improvement in the financial climate by December 2010.

    “It’s not too early or too late,” Femovich said. “If we move in the direction of athletics merit aid, it means that we would begin recruiting for the class that would enter in the fall of 2012. We will see how the economy develops. It allows institutions to have internal discussions in a much more focused way.

    “And it doesn’t create a situation where Fordham would be too far ahead (of the other institutions in recruiting). If we decide not to change our policy, then Fordham needs to know so they can look for a new home. And we will need to begin exploring our options for other membership opportunities as well.”

    Femovich imagined that, should the presidents move toward football scholarships, the implementation would be similar to the league’s move toward basketball scholarships: Simply declare the football aid permissible and allow each institution to make decisions on its own.

    “That approach allows schools to determine the best approaches on their individual campuses,” Femovich said. “I think if we went that direction, some might work to get up to 58 or 60 equivalencies, and others might say we’ll do scholarships for key athletes and other individuals that might not have the need, but we’ll do a combination, a hybrid model.”

    While the conference office and other members weren’t surprised by Fordham’s decision – discussions have been ongoing within the league for some time – Femovich said the timing wasn’t ideal. The recession is forcing schools to make deep cuts in all areas of the institution, and asking for more dollars for athletics is difficult to balance with the league’s academic focus.

    “We’ll get through this as well,” Femovich said. “We have a strong commitment to each other, Fordham as well as the rest of our football group. We want to maintain that association if at all possible.”

    #509
    ngineer
    ngineer
    Participant

    Talk about academic gobblety-gook. How does FU already count their grants in aid ‘differently’ than the rest of PL so as not to have a Title IX impact? Sound like a typical accounting shell game to me. :(

    #510
    RichH
    RichH
    Participant

    Good explanation on Lafayette board, some if not many count need aid as student fin. aid sameas any student would get except it is targeted to a fb player. No need or balancing as all students technically eligible for same aid .Once you move it to specific merit aid only available to fb players then must balance. Problem arisesif as atLC you have substantially lessequivalent female need aid to move over to merit to balance the ledger. Do not knowfor us but from what I have heard we have more than sufficient aid on both sides to equal out. Whether we can increase aid from 54 to 57-8 or so with equal raise for girls, given eco.dont know

    Thanks for the campus report

    #511

    lfnadmin
    Keymaster

    I weighed in too on the blog:

    http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.co … x-and.html

    It’s long and tries to clarify everything on Title IX as far as I know. I also try to explain why Title IX compliance is a cakewalk for some schools and a nightmare for others.

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