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Monday, March 16, 2015
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Sports
Frazier ironing out cost of attendance Scholarships
Frank Gogola Sports Editor T @FrankGogola
Head count: one scholarship per student-athlete Equivalency: scholarships are split between student-athletes on team
DeKalb | Athletic Director Sean
Frazier will have a more complete idea of exactly how cost of attendance scholarships will be implemented and the exact dollar figure needed, which he approximated at $800,000 minimally, by June or July. Frazier pounced on the idea of offering cost of attendance scholarships on Jan. 28, less than two weeks after the autonomy conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac12 and SEC — passed the legislation on Jan. 17. Cost of attendance, which goes into effect Aug. 1, covers expenses beyond the tuition, room, board and books included in current athletic scholarships. Current and prospective student-athletes will be eligible for cost of attendance scholarships beginning in 2015-16. “We got outside the gate on this pretty aggressively,” Frazier said. “There’s a lot of recruiting things going on and a lot of other things that are happening now. We wanted to make sure if you come to NIU that’s something we’re committed to.” Frazier said the Athletic Sean Frazier D e p a r t m e n t Athletic Director has been working with the office of admissions and financial aid to figure out how student-athletes will receive the cost of attendance portion of their scholarships. Frazier said the dollar figure for individual cost of attendance is a moving target because the base dollar amount is set by the institution — not the athletic department — and then each individual receives an amount based on his or her level of need.
Head count Football Men’s basketball Women’s basketball Volleyball Gymnastics Women’s tennis
85 13 15 12 12 Eight
Equivalency Men’s golf Men’s soccer Men’s tennis Wrestling Baseball Women’s golf Softball Women’s soccer Track/cross country
4.5 9.9 4.5 9.9 11.7 Six 12 14 18
Total
Gavin Weaver | Northern Star File Photo
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Drew Hare (12) runs with the ball in the game against the Toledo Rockets on Nov. 11 at Huskie Stadium. Student-athletes from all Div. I sports are eligible to receive cost of attendance scholarships.
“We do believe in the fact that the student-athletes’ well-being is job No. 1,” Frazier said. “We stand by that. Our coaches stand by that. Our department stands by that. Our administration stands by that. We need to divert those resources in that area. It’s just something that times have changed, and we’re willing and able to go that route.” Frazier said the $800,000 for the cost of attendance in has already been projected in the Athletic Department’s operational budget for the next fiscal year. The Athletic Department has been able to generate more revenue
through the new multimedia rights contract with Learfield Sports, premiums seating areas at football and basketball games and shows at the Convocation Center, most recently Brad Paisley and Monster Truck Nationals, Frazier said. “We’ve been good stewards of our resources,” Frazier said. “… At the end of the day we’ve been having pipelines of shows and externals – revenues that were not already existing or what we had we’ve enhanced. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we’re going to be diverting those resources toward
cost of attendance.” Frazier said generating the revenue that will be needed to cover the cost of attendance scholarships in the future will be on the Athletic Department, especially with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget cuts reducing funds to schools. “We have to make sure the monies that we are looking for are external in nature,” Frazier said. “… We’re not going back to the students. We’re not going back to the student fees. We’re not going back to the institution giving us money. And how the governor has put the cuts we’re certainly not going back
235.5
to the state to be able to do that. So, we really have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.” As for what exactly Frazier has in mind for the future to pull in more external revenue, he’s still in the idea phase with other personnel in the Athletic Department. “We have some need financially, and we can’t pass it along to the students, we can’t pass it along to our fan base, but we’re going to have to create some other ways to engage people so they can spend their discretionary dollar, and that’s where our focus is,” Frazier said. “And quite frankly that’s why I was hired. So, I got to put that on my shoulder; you got to give me fourth and 1, and I got to get through that.”
Bennett guides women’s hoops through troubling times this team really handled the adversity Record under well. I’ve never had as many injuries in my career, and I’ve been coaching 2010-11 26 years. It definitely was unique.”
Frank Gogola Sports Editor T @FrankGogola
2011-12 2012-13 Condensed roster Only three Huskies — redshirt se- 2013-14 nior Jenna Thorp, sophomore guard 2014-15
and lost 17 times in 2014-15. It went 8-10 in conference play and was bounced from the MAC Tournament in the first round. It registered only three victories away from home. Yet, 2014-15 proved to be head coach Kathi Bennett’s best coaching job in her five seasons at NIU. Managing a Div. I basketball team is a tall task; keeping that team Kathi Bennett together and on Head coach track through injuries that ravaged more than half the roster requires a certain level of leadership and command. “This was completely new,” Bennett said. “I’ve had a single dominant player go down, but I’ve never had as many impact players go down. It was kind of a unique situation. I think
MAC All-Freshman Team — played in all 29 games. Even with a lack of available bodies, the Huskies stayed in games late, but they went 3-6 in games decided by five or fewer points. “I’m so proud of the team and how we hung together,” Bennett said. “Besides Ohio and at Toledo we were in every game. We competed our butts off. Nobody kind of knows what you go through besides the team, and we know what we did and how hard we worked and how well we stayed together.” On most nights the Huskies went with a seven- or eight-player rotation. As the minutes began to pile up and starters played 35-plus minutes, Bennett said the team did more film sessions and walkthroughs instead of intense practices. “Defense — that’s what we hang our hat on — it’s something that’s not natural,” Bennett said. “It takes
Bennett
13-17 14-17 7-23 11-19 12-17
Crowded bench
• Senior forward Natecia Augusta tore her ACL before the season, missing the whole year.
• Sophomore forward Jazmine Harris missed the entire year afAlly Lehman and true freshman ter rupturing her Achilles tendon Women’s basketball won 12 games forward Kelly Smith, named to the effort, energy and you have to do the in the offseason. repetition. And that [lack of practice] hurt us. Also chemistry on the court — playing with each other — as the season wears on when you don’t practice as much comes into play, too.” Still, the Huskies held teams to 55.8 points per game, the best mark of the Bennett era. Their previous best came in 2011-12 and 2012-13 when they held opponents to 59.5 points.
• Sophomore guard Shavonné Brewer sat out the season due to NCAA transfer rules. • Redshirt sophomore Cassidy Glenn made a personal decision to give up basketball after six games as pain in her knees became too much to even practice.
• Freshman guard Georgia Battling through the pain At the end of the season, the Hus- Breunig played in only 11 games kies managed an eight seed in the and missed what Bennett called MAC Tournament, hosting a play- a key time in the offseason for off game which they lost, 49-44, to the Central Michigan Chippewas on March 9 at the Convocation Center. Bennett described the MAC West as “tremendous” and was very proud of how the Huskies won eight conference games. Winning four games in a row
during late January and early February, the Huskies came up one game short of becoming the first team in program history to win five games in a row as a member of the MAC. Deflecting any praise, Bennett credited her coaching staff and
freshmen as Breunig was recovering from a broken foot. • Sophomore forward Amber Gray missed nearly half the season with a torn ACL. • Senior forward Alex Dumoulin missed a month after suffering a broken foot around Thanksgiving. • Senior guard Amanda Corral missed the first three games of the season while recovering from offseason hand surgery and wore a makeshift cast on her left hand a good portion of the season. • Danny Pulliam and Lacia Gorman were slowed by nagging injuries throughout the season, and sophomore Ally Lehman was forced to take over at point guard. the student-athletes as much if not more than herself. “The one think I take from the season was we were a true team,” Bennett said. “I think we really relied on each other. I felt like we were very together.”