COLUMBIA, Mo. — We interrupt the Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher verbal slap fight with your weekly peek behind the curtain of college sports.
These days, if you’re a Mizzou athlete, it pays to get A’s. B’s, too.
Missouri is one of several Division I athletics departments that now rewards its athletes with financial incentives for hitting certain academic benchmarks, up to nearly $6,000 a year. That became possible last year when the Supreme Court ruled in Alston vs. NCAA that universities could compensate athletes for academic achievement on the grounds of antitrust laws.
To no surprise, with recruiting implications at stake, the Southeastern Conference jumped on board last fall when SEC campus leaders voted unanimously to give each school discretion on how it determines criteria for the academic bonuses and allowed its members to reward athletes the maximum $5,980 per year plus other education-related benefits, including computers.