Texas football players might soon find themselves with a slightly thicker wallet.
No, not thanks to Longhorns boosters, but because the school might be set to provide a considerable stipend on top of what they receive now.
Athletic director Steve Patterson, speaking at a forum in Washington D.C. on college athletics, said the school is prepared to spend nearly $6 million a year for a cost-of-attendance stipend for each student-athlete and to comply with the recent O'Bannon ruling that is still making its way through the court system.
That breaks down to about $10,000 per player at the school across all sports, roughly the maximum potential new rules would allow.
"At our school, it looks as though cost of attendance may be $4,000 or $5,000 more per year," Patterson said. "Some schools in our conference, even in the same state, don't have the same number."
Longhorns women's athletic director Chris Plonsky and Patterson told the Dallas Morning News that the department won't have any issues ponying up the dough to give to student-athletes. Though there is no set timetable for the checks to get cut to players, it does appear it is on the horizon in the wake of a number of changes set for the coming years.
"At the end of the day, there's this misperception that the labor is free in college athletics," Patterson said. "That's not accurate. If you're a full ride football player at the University of Texas, the benefit you get for room, board, tuition, books, training, meals, fees and medical is $69,000 a year. That's tax-free. You add taxes to that, and that puts you in the top third of household incomes in the United States. If you're a basketball player, it's $77,000 a year. I don't think student-athletes are being taken advantage of when you're in the top third to top quartile of household incomes."
It might not happen next year, it might not happen the year after that. But someday soon players will start to receive a bit more than they do at the moment.
You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.
