Where does it say you can’t give everyone a full stipend? I’m not finding that restriction in the NCAA announcement of the program. If Stanford wants to give all the 300+ athletes a stipend, I think it could and that would make Stanford even more attractive to a swimmer on a 25% scholarship than it already is, because Stanford needs to attract more applicants. :-*
My daughter has a 1/3 athletic scholarship, but she (and just about everyone on the team) also has a merit scholarship, and two other grants from the school, which brings the amount pretty close to a full scholarship. We all knew this when we accepted the scholarships, and honestly, we don’t care that her tuition and costs are paid from different pots, as long as she doesn’t have any out of pocket costs. If she were eligible for a stipend (she’s not), she should get the full amount because the school figured out a way get her tuition, fees, and R&B paid by the school even though only 1/3 of an athletic scholarship.
I understand the math northwesty used, but I just don’t see a restriction on giving everyone a full stipend if that’s what the school wanted to do (and could afford to do). Stanford can afford it, Harvard and the other Ivies actually do it in that all students get their need covered up to COA, whether they have 12 men’s lacrosse players on the team getting full COA covered or 25. VaTech figured out a way to raise the COA to give a bigger stipend and they didn’t have to do that.
I really didn’t find that coaches were all that apologetic for not offering a full scholarship. They have 10 or 12 full scholarships and they are used to slicing and dicing them as they want. One coach outright told me she didn’t give scholarships to freshmen at all, and yet she recruits 10+ per year. Just not my kid!