Capital One

[LSUSCOTT 0]

Good luck to in the Capital One bowl. Represent the SEC right. Geaux

[Weagle98 119]

Right back at ya!!

Kill the U, LSU.

Thanks man.

[Tigermike 3,039]

Thanks Scott, good luck to as well!

GO TIGERS!

GO TIGERS!

GO TIGERS!

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Geaux Tigers

Go Tigers

While bama Fears The Thumb from

[saniflush 0]

Thought this was pretty interesting for those of you who have not seen it.

Friday, December 30, 2005

JON SOLOMON

News staff writer

Money is tight for Auburn University football player Tim Duckworth. His parents are deceased, and as Christmas approached Duckworth needed to buy gifts for four siblings and eight nieces and nephews.

Without his scholarship and Pell Grant money, "I wouldn't have anything," Duckworth said. "Half of us (Auburn players) really don't have that much money to buy people in our family gifts."

Like many college football players, Duckworth's solution was simple: stock up during bowl season. Gifts, mileage reimbursement and daily cash allowance from the lucrative bowl system provide NCAA-approved compensation for college football players, who normally are restricted by the NCAA from receiving any kind of pay or extra benefits.

Bowls grossed $253 million in 2004-05, a 38 percent increase from five years earlier. Universities made $128 million on bowls last year. And the players, for a change, get to make some money, too - potentially up to $1,400 in value for many Alabama and Auburn players this season.

"This is our big Christmas bonus," Auburn defensive back Jonathan Wilhite said. "I guess we look at this time as payment for our season."

The Capital One Bowl is giving Auburn players a Sony camcorder and medallion quartz watch as part of a $400 gift package. Also, Auburn itself is providing each player with an iPod.

Alabama players get a portable DVD player, Mp3 player, watch and luggage in their $500 Cotton Bowl package. The university is purchasing clothing and will provide another gift at a later date, perhaps a bowl ring.

The NCAA raised bowl games' maximum gift allowance to $500 per person for 125 members of each participating team, up from $350 covering 95 members last year. Eligible members include players, coaches and other staff.

In addition, schools are permitted to spend $350 on gifts per player, the same amount as last year. If schools use their limit, they face an expense between $35,000 and $40,000.

To stay attractive to teams and competitive with other bowls, many bowl directors believe they must spring for more-expensive gifts to stay at or near the NCAA maximum.

"It's funny. The NCAA was very concerned about budgets, and then they continually spring this stuff on us," said Gary Cavalli, executive director of the 4-year-old Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. "The NCAA is increasing our expenses every year, so they make our job a little harder. But our goal is to make a great experience."

The NCAA says the gifts serve as mementos to commemorate participation in NCAA football.

But some bowl directors wonder when enough is enough.

"The NCAA has doubled our limit in about five or six years," said Steve Ehrhart, executive director of Memphis' Liberty Bowl. "Anything beyond $500, you're really (flouting) the rules and you have to ask: `Is this really a gift, or just an avenue to pay the players?'"

Mileage, expenses:

Alabama and Auburn players spoke excitedly about the bowl gifts they have received this week. Some will keep them, and others will use them as presents.

The big payoff for players, though, comes from transportation reimbursement and expense payments.

Auburn provides 48.5 cents per mile round-trip from the school or a player's home to the bowl game in Orlando, depending on which starting destination nets the most money. The 900-mile, round-trip drive from Auburn to the bowl game is worth approximately $430, and more for players whose homes are farther away.

Alabama also offers 48.5 cents per mile the state government's mileage rate for official business from Tuscaloosa to the game in Dallas and back. No choice is offered between leaving from Tuscaloosa or a hometown. Crimson Tide players get approximately $582 from the 1,200-mile, round-trip drive.

Players can purchase a plane ticket with the mileage money, but most save expenses by sharing rides with one another or relatives. Alabama center Taylor Britt planned to ride free in his father's motor home.

"The bowl money is huge for me," Britt said. "I wouldn't be able to afford gifts without it. I think I'll get in the thousands."

Auburn wide receiver Courtney Taylor planned to hitch a ride with teammates.

"Every year I always spend like $20 on gas," Taylor said. "This year I might spend $30, maybe. Then I've got all that other money in my pocket."

During their respective eight-day bowl stays, Alabama and Auburn players each receive approximately $65 a day (state-approved $45 for meals and an NCAA maximum $20 for incidentals). Meal money gets deducted when the school or bowl provides food.

"It's always fun to see the smile on their face when you have an opportunity to give them a little bit of money at the end of the season," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said.

Schools usually provide the expense money in three equal installments. At Auburn, the last payment is typically enough for a player to catch a flight home if he runs through his money.

"Sometimes you get some big spenders and you don't want them to spend it all in one day," Alabama coach Mike Shula said. "You try to take that thought process out for them a little bit like my wife with our credit card."

If necessary, Shula said, he uses players' bowl money to fine them over disciplinary issues. Tuberville said he had not thought of fines and will consider it.

"You don't use it for leverage. But obviously if I give it to them in increments, that's another incentive making sure you do things the right way once you get there," Tuberville said. "If for some reason they have to be sent home, that money stops."

Valuable mementos:

Why are these gifts and cash advancements legal when the NCAA prohibits so much else? Dennis Poppe, NCAA managing director for football and baseball, said the gifts mesh with the NCAA's amateurism policy, "because this is what the membership voted in and this is what they view as permissible awards."

NCAA spokeswoman Crissy Schluep said the intent of the gifts is to recognize participants in sports. Players in all sports who don't make the postseason have gift award allowances from their schools: $325 for seniors and $175 for underclassmen.

"There is a difference between giving cash, which is an extra benefit, and giving a memento," Schluep said.

Yet some bowl gifts go beyond being small keepsakes. In an analysis by The Birmingham News, the average gift package presented by bowls this season is $424.48 per person. Twenty-two of the 28 bowls are giving electronic presents valued at a couple hundred dollars each.

The Capital One Bowl settled on gifts by polling its staff's younger members about what players might want.

"You want to give them something they'll actually use," said Tom Mickle, the Capital One Bowl's executive director.

Among the four gifts given to Michigan and Nebraska players by the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio is the Xbox 360, the elusive video console that is tough to find this holiday season. A scan of eBay found the Xbox 360 being auctioned for up to $1,225.

The NCAA says players cannot sell or exchange gifts, but has faced some instances of that.

Nine Georgia players from the school's 2002 SEC championship team were temporarily declared ineligible for selling their 10-karat gold rings a couple months after receiving them. One player also sold his Sugar Bowl ring and jersey for $3,500.

The players were reinstated when the NCAA decided its rules were unclear on the sale of memorabilia. The NCAA later clarified that athletes "shall not sell any item received for intercollegiate athletics participation or exchange such item for another item of value."

The Gator and New Orleans bowls are the only games handing out rings this season. One reason for the decline: The rise of players auctioning their rings online. Bowls prefer to let schools make those purchases instead. "Obviously, we've seen the rings on eBay," Mickle said.

Ehrhart, whose Liberty Bowl pays the $500 maximum and joins the SEC rotation in 2006, cautioned that bowls and universities must be careful the gifts don't become an expectation.

"Some university managers put the gifts in a room and the players don't know where they came from," Ehrhart said. "A lot of people in the community worked hard to provide these gifts."

The bowls use the logo-stamped gifts to increase their appeal among schools and provide exposure for sponsors.

In the most humorous example of catering to a sponsor, the Sun Bowl which values its package 5 cents below the NCAA limit provides players with a hair dryer because the game's title sponsor supplies men's grooming products.

Nine bowls spend the maximum $500, totaling $125,000 on their expense lines. Eight bowls spend at or below the previous $350 maximum. Many of those said they did not have enough time to increase spending this year and will do so next season.

"What you hope is there's never a minimum. The bowls should have flexibility," Ehrhart said. "You don't want to make it an arms race. Of course, that's already happened with the bowl payouts (to participating schools) because of the Bowl Championship Series. They push so much money through ABC and Fox, and that's why it carries over to gifts."

The players aren't complaining, and they notice who gives what.

"You expect more and more, and of course, you try to play to get the better bowl games to get the better gifts," said Britt, the Alabama center. "They say the Cotton Bowl is one of the better gifts, so you've got to respect that."

Auburn offensive lineman Marcus McNeill can't help but wonder why these benefits are legal now and not at other times.

"I guess they receive so much money (from bowls), it's just a small thing we can get," McNeill said. "A little change here, a little bowl gift there is probably minute compared to what they actually give to the schools."

In a sense, McNeill plans to use his expensive Capital One Bowl camcorder for its purpose as a memento.

"Me being a senior, this is probably the last time I'll hang out with these guys in my life," he said. "So if I can get that on camera, I'll keep it for my entire life."

Taylor, the Auburn wide receiver, will give some of his gifts to family members.

"Just wrap up some stuff and say, `Look what I bought you.' I don't tell where it came from. But when you see that big symbol of whatever bowl you're in, they probably already know."

Link

[WarTiger 3,910]

That's very interesting....i didn't know about any of this...thanks for posting.

[vatz22au 142]

Alabama players get a portable DVD player, Mp3 player, watch and luggage in their $500 Cotton Bowl package. The university is purchasing clothing and will provide another gift at a later date, perhaps a bowl ring.

And all the junk we get over rings

[Tigermike 3,039]

Alabama players get a portable DVD player, Mp3 player, watch and luggage in their $500 Cotton Bowl package. The university is purchasing clothing and will provide another gift at a later date, perhaps a bowl ring.

And all the junk we get over rings

207868[/snapback]

That story was written before Logan Young opened the trunk of his car.

[WarTim 3,456]