Teams musT deal wiTh logisTics of snacks
coming in the near future, Thompson said, is covering the cost of attendance.
Assuming the NCAA approves it, and league commissioners all seem to think they will, this one is seen as a victory for the athletes. It’s not exactly paying players, but it does ensure that a full scholarship will actually mean what it says as opposed to leaving them with extra costs.
Thompson said he believes the Mountain West programs will be able to cover that extra expense, although he admitted that with only a few days until another new wrinkle, there aren’t clear answers.
That change is unlimited snacks, which are now allowed but not required by the NCAA. It goes into effect on Aug. 1, and Thompson said that Mountain West teams are still comparing notes on how they plan to pay for the extra food, as well as logistics like where to keep them. “It’s a real challenge,” Thompson said. Outside of paying players, offering unlimited snacks, and maybe eventually unlimited full meals, is one possible way the Big 5 conferences — Thompson calls them the “high-resource” leagues — could separate themselves in the future. Overall, Thompson didn’t seem too worried about that or other possible advantages that the top leagues could offer to separate themselves, even if they don’t actually split apart.
The one thing that did seem like a game-changer to him, though, was scholarship limits. If those ever change, allowing the best programs to once again stockpile talent, that could be too much to overcome.
But no one’s proposing that right now, Thompson said. Could proposals change in another six months? Of course.
The most important thing to remember is that the unknown dominates these conversations right now. Even the num- ber of teams in the College Football Playoff is likely to expand sooner than later, Thompson agreed, and there hasn’t even been a game played with that system in place.
Clarity is coming in the next few years, but for now, “there are more questions than answers,” Thompson said. And amid all that uncertainty, the Mountain West is doing fine.
At least for now, and that’s all anyone can really say for sure.