“I do think at the beginning they were all thinking that everyone would get the full stipend. When the real numbers came out that it would cost $1m to give the stipends to everyone, then the idea of a percentage came in.”
You can’t give full stipends to every partial schollie recipient because that would violate the NCAA schollie limit in each sport. If you team is limited to aggregate 10 schollies that’s all you can give out after you slice them up into pieces.
If you gave out 20 50% tuition/room/board/books schollies plus 20 full COA stipends, that adds up to more than 10 total schollies.