Football scholarships are coming to the Patriot League beginning in 2013

FROM KEITH GROLLER

The teleconference is about to begin, but here's the release from the Patriot League announcing that the league will begin allowing schools the opportunity to give out 15 scholarships per year beginning in 2013.


CENTER VALLEY, Pa. (February 13, 2012)

-- The Patriot League Council of Presidents
endorsed a policy that will allow athletic merit aid for the sport of football, beginning with the

class entering school in the fall of 2013, it was announced Monday.

“The Council of Presidents’ decision to adjust the current need-based model of financial aid in

football, which has been in effect since the founding of the League in 1986, comes after

extensive study and discussion of alternative models and a thorough evaluation of the benefits

and potential costs associated with athletic merit aid in the sport. The decision reflects the

Presidents’ shared vision and shared commitment to the stability and long-term positioning of

the League and to its strength, competitiveness and quality,” said Daniel H. Weiss, Chair of the

Patriot League Council of Presidents and President of Lafayette College.

“This approach for awarding athletic merit aid to football student-athletes will allow our member

schools flexibility to determine the most effective use of their financial aid resources to attract

highly-qualified Division I scholar-athletes in a very competitive academic and athletic

marketplace,” said Patriot League Executive Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich. “The

introduction of this financial aid model for football will strengthen the Patriot League’s ability to

compete for outstanding student-athletes while continuing to uphold the high academic standards

of the League and its member institutions.”

Starting with the class entering school in the fall of 2013, each school will be permitted to award

no more than the equivalent of 15 athletic financial aid awards each year to incoming football

student-athletes, including transfer student-athletes. The total amount of all countable financial

aid awarded to all football student-athletes may not exceed 60 equivalencies in any year.

Currently, it is permissible for Patriot League institutions to offer athletic and academic merit aid

to student-athletes in the League’s other 22 sports. However, it is an institutional decision

regarding the amount and sports for which athletic aid is made available. Since its inception in

1986, Patriot League football was considered a separate entity and had maintained a need-limited

approach with financial aid. With the permissive aid approach, institutions will now be able to

determine the most effective way to award financial aid in football.

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