National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2001
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Management Council issues Special Assistance Fund policies
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The NCAA News
The Division I Management Council has incorporated changes to the use of the NCAA's Special Assistance Fund and has made several clarifications on existing uses of the fund.
At the Council's most recent meeting in July, Council members voted to modify use of the fund to allow student-athletes who qualify for the $500 clothing allowance to also use those funds for personal transportation home from their institution.
Because of those changes, the Council and the Collegiate Commissioners Association Compliance Administrators (CCACA) issued the following instances in which student-athletes are eligible to apply for funds:
* Pell-eligible student-athletes, including student-athletes who have exhausted their athletics eligibility or no longer are able to participate because of medical reasons.
* Student-athletes who are receiving countable aid and who have demonstrated financial need, including student-athletes who have exhausted their athletics eligibility or no longer are able to participate because of medical reasons.
Demonstrated financial need is defined as the cost of attendance minus expected family contribution before any athletics related aid or other aid being awarded.
Domestic student-athletes will have demonstrated financial need if they qualify for a Pell Grant or have demonstrated financial need determined annually by the institution's financial aid department using the federal methodology or the needs analysis methodology used to award institutional need-based funds to all students.
Demonstrated financial need for foreign student-athletes must be determined and certified annually in writing by the official foreign student entity of the institution outside of the athletics department.
The Council and the CCACA also issued the following instances in which student-athletes are not eligible to apply for funds:
* Student-athletes (domestic or foreign) who receive countable aid (that is, aid that counts against team limits) and are not Pell-eligible and do not have demonstrated financial need.
* Student-athletes (domestic and foreign) who do not receive any countable aid (that is, aid that counts against team limits) and are not Pell-eligible.
* Nonqualifiers in their initial year of residence.
A student-athlete must qualify for the fund on an annual basis.
Permissible uses, restrictions
The following are permissible uses of the fund:
1. Cost of clothing, travel from campus to home and other essential expenses (not entertainment) up to $500.
2. Cost of expendable academic course supplies (for example, notebook and pens) and rental of nonexpendable supplies (for example, computer equipment and cameras) that are required for all students enrolled in the course.
3. Medical and dental costs not covered by another insurance program (for example, premiums for optional medical insurance, hearing aids, vision therapy and off-campus psychological counseling).
4. Costs associated with student-athlete or family emergencies.
The following are restrictions on the use of the fund:
1. Financing any portion of an institutional grant-in-aid that could have been awarded to the student-athlete is prohibited.
2. Entertainment expenses for student-athletes are not permissible.
3. The purchase of disability, illness or injury insurance to protect against the loss of potential future professional sports earnings is not permissible.
4. The funds may not be used for administrative purposes (conferences may not charge an administrative fee, nor may salary or staff expenses for administration of the funds be paid from these funds).
The responsibility for oversight and administration of the fund, including interpretations, rests solely with the conferences. The guiding principles of the fund are to meet the student-athletes' needs of an emergency or essential nature for which financial assistance otherwise is not available. Conference interpretations not addressed by the Division I Management Council should stay within this intended purpose.
A conference may accumulate not more than the total allocation received over the previous two years. The conference will not receive any additional dollars if it has exceeded the two-year cap amount.
Independent institutions' funds have been assigned to a conference office for administrative purposes, based on the same assignments made for administration of the National Letter of Intent.
Conferences annually will be required to report to the NCAA national office the number of Special Assistance Fund recipients by sport, purposes for which the moneys were used and the specific amounts for each purpose.
The guidelines also may be found on NCAA Online under "Administration and Governance." Click on "Financial," then "2001-02 Division I Revenue Distribution Plan," then proceed to the "Special Assistance Fund guidelines."
Special Assistance Fund eligible student-athletes chart
The following is a sample chart to help determine eligibility for the Special Assistance Fund:
Aid & Need Status -- Eligible for Fund Including $500 Clothing
Countable aid & Pell-eligible -- Yes
Countable aid, Not eligible for Pell & demonstrate need -- Yes
Countable aid not eligible for Pell & no demonstrated need -- No
No countable aid & Pell-eligible -- Yes
Countable aid, Pell-eligible and exhausted eligibility or no longer able to compete due to medical reasons -- Yes
No countable aid, Pell-eligible and exhausted eligibility or no longer able to compete due to medical reasons -- Yes
No countable aid, not eligible for Pell, & demonstrated need -- No
Nonqualifiers in their initial year of residence - No
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