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Beginning with the fall 2015 semester, the 5 BCS leagues have approved paying student athletes an additional stipend to equal the full cost of attendance. It is expected this will be several thousand dollars per student athlete per year.

I haven't seen an official position on this from the Valley. Have any of the individual schools released anything?

I know that Troy Dannen has said that UNI will be forced to do what they can to compete in Men's basketball, and then look to do the same in Volleyball and Women's basketball. He didn't sound as concerned with sports such as football because it is Men's basketball that we are in competition with the Big 5 schools.

I think specifically he said we would be doing it in Men's & Women's Basketball, Volleyball, and Wrestling to maintain gender balance and those are the sports at which we (try to) compete at a high level.

The big question I have is what will NDSU do for football. That could be a real issue for UNI.

I hope the MVC would be on the same page about doing this for the flagship sport (basketball). Anyone who isn't on board may cause issues.

I will be surprised if more than a few teams in FCS football adopt this. Of cousre, NDSU is absolutely suspect #1.