PHOENIX (AP) — The money isn't much, especially by the standards of big-time sports, just a couple of hundred dollars a month.
But it's a lot for a college kid.
And, lest people forget, the football players at Clemson and Alabama who will be facing off Monday for a national title are college kids.
For the first time, players at Power 5 schools receive a "cost of attendance" stipend this season. The stipend is the most significant part of the new autonomy rules that allowed financial help to athletes at schools in the five major conferences to cover the difference between scholarship benefits and the so-called "actual" cost of attending the university.