Tennessee, Auburn Top List of Schools Increasing Athletic Scholarship Aid

The implementation of a new rule that allows schools to cover the full cost of athletes' scholarships has reportedly led to some major upticks in aid starting this fall.

Brad Wolverton and Sandhya Kambhampati of The Chronicle of Higher Education report that at least 15 colleges will increase the scholarship amount by more than $4,000. Tennessee and Auburn top the list, both adding more than $5,500 to the total aid.

Chance Linton of 247Sports highlighted the largest increases:

Rank	School	Increase
1	Tennessee	$5,666
2	Auburn	$5,586
3	Louisville	$5,202
4	Mississippi State	$5,126
5	Texas Tech	$5,100
6	Penn State	$4,788
7	TCU	$4,700
8	Oklahoma	$4,614
9	Oklahoma State	$4,560
10	Ole Miss	$4,500
11	Wisconsin	$4,316
12	Texas	$4,310
13	South Carolina	$4,151
14	Kansas State	$4,112
15	Arkansas	$4,002

The changes come after a January vote by the Power Five conferences to allow schools to cover expenses beyond the basics.

Steve Berkowitz of USA Today provided the details following a 79-1 vote in favor of the new plan:

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The vote, taken during the NCAA's annual convention, redefines an athletic scholarship so that it can cover not only the traditional tuition, room, board, books and fees, but also the incidental costs of attending college. That means a scholarship will now be able to pay for items including transportation and miscellaneous personal expenses.

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Wolverton and Kambhampati's report notes concerns have been raised by some schools that basing increased scholarship aid on cost of attendance will lead to recruiting advantages, but one anonymous source told the Chronicle that admission offices try to keep the projected cost down.

"If we're talking about a few-hundred athletes versus 5,000 or 10,000 incoming students, who do you think is going to win that battle?" an athletics official said. "The admissions department is going to put their number up there because they're marketing the school."

In other words, while athletic departments could gain a recruiting edge by raising the projected cost of attendance, it's unlikely admissions offices would be convinced of the benefits of such a move given the impact it would have on the rest of the student body. The report states that the extra money comes from the increased size of television contracts.

If this new scholarship bump works, it could ameliorate much of the financial strain placed on athletes during college, as they pay for things not previously covered by scholarships but still necessary to attend college.