FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Cost of attendance stipends for athletes figured to make college sports’ rich and powerful even more so. FIU athletic director Pete Garcia said the financial aid math puts FIU’s stipend number around $6,000, among the highest in the nation. For perspective, none of the stipend numbers thrown around at SEC Media Day equals FIU’s. In the year and a half since the Power Five schools voted for COA stipends, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has stated its concern over finagling figures for a recruiting advantage. Both Garcia and FIU football coach Ron Turner thought this could be a recruiting advantage. The athlete can use the stipend any way he or she pleases. That includes sending a chunk of it back home and living a Spartan existence off the rest. -David J. Neal, Miami Herald, Read More