UC Anticipated To Be Among Top 10 Schools In The Country In Cost Of Attendance Payments To Student Athletes

The new and improved Bill Koch over at GoBearcats.com is reporting that the University of Cincinnati is prepared make the cost of attendance payments to student athletes. The amount would put UC among the top 10 highest paying schools in the country, and potentially top 5, according to senior athletic director Maggie McKinley.

"According to senior associate athletic director Maggie McKinley, UC is expected to be among the top 10 schools in the country – and possibly the top five – in how much it will provide its student-athletes. That’s not because the school is trying to outspend other schools, McKinley said, but because the actual cost of getting an education at UC is calculated based on federal Department of Education guidelines used by financial aid offices throughout the country.The amount of money will not be the same for every student-athlete. It depends on many factors that make up the actual cost of attendance. UC’s figure for 2015-16 will be between $4,320 and $7,434 annually, which would be higher than Kentucky, Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State, Illinois, Michigan, West Virginia, Notre Dame and Purdue, according to figures taken from athleticscholarships.net."

In the college athletics world of Keeping Up With The Joneses, this is a neutron bomb-sized nugget of information.

Cincinnati, and the American Athletic Conference really, have been shouting from the rooftops that they would be able to pay whatever cost of attendance in the form of a stipend to student athletes that the Power Five schools doled out. Texas might be writing $10,000 checks but it seems the Bearcats are willing to pay their players more than the likes of Kentucky, Michigan, and Notre Dame.

This is encouraging for a couple of reasons but one in particular; recruiting.

The Bearcats’ coaching staffs are behind the eight ball whenever they walk into a high school player’s home after he or she is visited by a representative at a Power Five school. The recruit was likely pitched on the glory days of the program and the perks of inclusion in the prestigious club; gold plated lounge chairs, Tiki Bar in the weight room, personal trainers. You know, the best that the millions and millions of TV contract dollars can buy.

But they also had another potential bullet in the chamber in the form of payments they could shell out to student athletes. Those truckloads of cash from partnerships with ESPN, Fox, and the like would allow them to provide stipends to players that Group of Five programs with their meager budgets and TV deals could not. It would allow even a Washington State to out-recruit a Boise State.

Cincinnati wouldn’t have that same problem, however. A coach from Louisville or Indiana might be able to sell a recruit on ACC and Big Ten opponents and crowds. They’d certainly be able to win that battle but when it comes to the cold hard cash in their pockets, UC is emphatically stating they can beat them out and then some.

That’s why this announcement is so important for the immediate future of Bearcats athletics if that future calls for AAC logos to be placed everywhere we look on campus. If Cincinnati can stand shoulder to shoulder in even a handful of areas with Power Five schools when other Group of Five programs cannot, UC will continue to be the cream of the crop despite being relegated.