WISCONSIN BADGERS

Despite testimony by UW Chancellor, UW has no plans to disband athletics if forced to pay above full cost of attendance

Jeff Potrykus
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank

MADISON – Is the University of Wisconsin seriously contemplating dropping athletics if NCAA schools are forced to pay athletes more than full cost of attendance?

Of course not.

Yet UW Chancellor Rebecca Blank, testifying at a federal trial in the Northern District of California, sounded an ominous warning this week.

“It’s not clear that we would continue to run an athletic program,” Blank said, according to Law360.com. “We’re not interested in professional sports. We’re interested in student-athletes.”

According to UW athletic director Barry Alvarez, no one at UW or within the Big Ten has held serious talks on the matter. 

“We broke down into groups and had a little banter about it but not really a lot of discussion,” he said Tuesday, referring to last year’s Big Ten athletic director meetings. “It is so hypothetical. It’s not even worth me commenting on.”

Remember that in 2013, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany wrote the league would de-emphasize athletics if college athletes were allowed to share in TV revenue. 

Alvarez did share, however, his reaction to reading examples of student-athletes going hungry. 

“I find it upsetting that the athletes are saying that they’re starving,” he said. “I know what our athletes get.”

According to UW:

Non-resident scholarship athletes are paid $4,880 per year in full cost of attendance. The figure for resident scholarship athletes is $4,270 per year. 

Alvarez noted all athletes eat a breakfast valued at $20. 

“Everyone, whether they are on scholarship or not, eats breakfast here,” he said.

Scholarship athletes eat at a training table, which is located inside Camp Randall Stadium. 

“And we have our nutrition areas, the refueling stations, in every weight room with food and protein and snacks,” he said. “That is all day, seven days a week.

“Their food is not taken out of their checks for scholarship kids. So unless you’re living in one of those expensive apartments or condos downtown, by yourself, you should have a pretty good subsidy monthly."