By Alex Krutchik
This past Saturday, the Florida State University football team beat a Charleston Southern team that had 14 players suspended for NCAA violations. The players’ wrongdoing: using scholarship money to buy pencils, binders, and electronics.
In total, more than 30 players were suspended. Because there were so many, players were given a choice of either sitting out of the game against FSU or this week’s game against Monmouth.
Tallahassee Community College plays in the National Junior College Athletic Association. NCJAA rules are different than NCAA rules and the chances of something similar happening at TCC are slim.
Most four-year universities rely on compliance officers to inform the athletes about what they can and can’t do, and they leave it up to the players to listen and follow the rules.
Rob Chaney has been the Athletic Director for TCC since 2009 and says that TCC has its own way of minimizing the chances of an athlete breaking the rules.
At TCC, bookstore employees are told what the athletes can and can not purchase with their stipend; so even if a student-athlete wanted to buy headphones or snacks with his or her book money, he or she would be blocked from doing so by the cashiers, Chaney said.
“The bookstore knows to not credit them [student-athletes] for anything other than a textbook,” Chaney said. “We don’t put that aid in their [student-athlete’s] hands. We wait to get their class schedule, we take the schedule to the bookstore, they fill the orders, and they send the bills back to me.”
Chaney also said that the two-year environment is a lot easier to control than a larger four-year environment. Four-year universities offer more sports, and therefore, have more players under their watch. So the chances of something major like this happening at TCC are less likely than at a bigger school like Charleston Southern.
According to the NJCAA website, each school is allowed to award scholarships to cover “tuition, fees, room and board, course-related books, and transportation costs one time per academic year to and from the college by direct route.”
In addition, the NJCAA allows any school to buy $250 worth of necessary supplies other than books for each student-athlete. This includes any course-related material such as iClickers, calculators, and other course-specific supplies.
The NCAA also allows schools to give players as much book money as they need. Though if there is money left over, athletes cannot spend the money elsewhere, other than for other essential school supplies in the
bookstore. The NCAA considers binders and pencils essential school supplies. Not headphones and snacks.
The NJCAA rule was a new amendment passed by the NJCAA three years ago, in an effort to keep up with rising cost of education, said Chaney.
“Two-year institutions are not in as good of a position to absorb that full cost of education,” said Chaney. “There are more costs out there that are put on the student, and that was a way to help the student out a little bit and make attending college a little more affordable.”
