It’s fascinating how each school goes about this aspect of extra-curriculars. In this particular case, Doane University is an NAIA school. OF course their rules are different for scholarships than the various NCAA divisions, the NJCAA, and others.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the budgets and scholarships of Doane’s sports teams.
Athletic Director, Jill McCartney, said as far as scholarship amounts go, each sports team does not just have a set amount of money they’re allowed to spend, as many people believe they do.
“Coaches don’t get a pot of money,” said McCartney. “They get an average.”
McCartney said the way the average works is based on the numbers of players that each team has on its roster. She said that each sports team is responsible for bringing in a certain number of athletes each year. Based on that number, each team is then given an average number of scholarship money to give to each athlete. If there are more students on the roster, the team gets more money to hand out in scholarships, she said.
“Let’s say my average is 5,000 dollars of sports scholarship per 10 (students),” McCartney said. “I can look at that (and say) ‘Okay, that’s a pot of 50,000 dollars’.”
Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Ian McKeithen, said in addition to the average, there are different factors that go into giving a student a scholarship award.
The student could have a different ability level than other athletes, they could be receiving a larger academic scholarship, they could be receiving a legacy scholarship because one of their family members also attended Doane or they could be a part of another campus program that also gives them financial aid, such as the Hansen Leadership Program, he said.
“One kid may receive a lower basketball scholarship but gets more academic scholarship than somebody else, so that might even out,” McKeithen said.
However, scholarship amounts are kept completely separate from the actual budget that each team has, which is used for things such as travel, food, equipment and pre-season on-campus costs, Head Football Coach Matt Franzen said.
“Literally everything you can think of falls within our operating budget,” Franzen said.
Franzen, who coaches a team with over 100 players on its roster, said the biggest cost to the team’s budget is between traveling and pre-season meals for the team before school starts each year. However, he said he is still very satisfied with the amount of money that is provided to him from Doane each year.
Read the entire article at DoaneLine.com.
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