09/23/05
By Amanda Cochran,
News Editor
Seton Hill University (SHU) freshmen football recruits will continue to receive football scholarship funds, regardless of whether the player quits the team at any time during the 2005-2006 academic year.
"If a freshman was recruited and went to football camp, we are honoring that total package this year," said Maryann Dudas, director of the Financial Aid Office. "We made a commitment to that student."
"If we yank that money away, it's just not fair to the families and the students who planned to go to Seton Hill," she said. "We don't want to put (them) through that stress."
"We don't treat the football players differently," Dudas said, defending the individual method of the school's financial aid process.
"We don't use formula packaging like other colleges," she said. "Each student is evaluated on an individual level. You have to look at the big picture."
That big picture includes distributing 24 NAIA 'full ride' scholarships--the equivalent of $28,900 each, complete with room, board, and tuition--among the players.
Full athletic scholarships are not awarded to any Griffins athlete, as determined by SHU policies, Snyder said.
The team began with 175 recruits. That's a possible average available amount of $3,963 to each player at the start of August football camp.
Dudas said this is the first time in SHU's history that continued athletic financial aid has been a part of athletic recruitment.
NAIA scholarship allowances correlate with the size of the team. The more recruits, the more financial aid funds are potentially awarded to the players.
"They (football players) are getting very little difference (in financial aid) than any other student at Seton Hill. People throw that in my face all the time and it's just not true," Head Football Coach Chris Snyder said.
This concern of special treatment of SHU football athletes includes the total funds designated by the Financial Aid Office.
"I think they're receiving more (money) because it's new," said Kelly Mayer, freshman.
"They have to be getting something or those 180 kids wouldn't be here," said Armand Leonelli, senior soccer player.
If upperclassmen players decide to leave the newly formed team, their financial aid packages will remain intact throughout the fall semester only.
Dudas said the upperclassmen players know the standards of Seton Hill, while this is a new experience for freshmen.
Steve Brown, sophomore, left the team during the second week of football camp. He will continue receive football scholarship funds until the end of the semester.
Brown said the freshmen on the team should receive the assistance during their first year.
"It gives them a safety net for what they want to do," he said. "If you take that away, it can really hurt them."
"This is the first time these kids saw what a team is like," Dudas said. "Football is different. It's such a large squad; you know not everyone is going to work out."
Snyder, also athletics director, said, "As a football coach, it doesn't seem right, but as an administrator, I think it increases enrollment at Seton Hill."
"We bring in more money than we put out, as it relates to football," he added.
Ken Gordon, freshman football player, said it wasn't common knowledge that football players would continue to receive their football scholarship package if they decided to leave the team.
"That's just not right at all," he said. "You're not working to get that money. That's like cheating."
"It's not fair to the football players who are still working, and to all the other people who are participating in sports," said Bobby Zelenak, freshman. "The people who work hard and are devoted should receive that funding."
Gordon said the SHU football program's image is at stake.
"You shouldn't give special royalties to football, just because it's football. One sport's not more special than another," he said.
The ceiling amount of $693,600, allotted by the NAIA for SHU football, hasn't been reached this year, Dudas said.
"We never awarded that much to the football players or any of the other teams," she said.
Football players may receive more scholarship funds for exemplary academic performance, which may not be counted into NAIA funds, Dudas said.
"There isn't an average amount," she said. "It's really a complicated balancing act. It's so intricately tied between need and academics."
Dudas said statistics for football players who currently receive financial aid without playing are not available.
"Until the dust settles, I don't really know," she said.
Currently, the SHU official online roster lists 132 players.
Snyder said around 90 percent of the team receives some type of football financial assistance. He said he could not provide an amount of students who quit the team and still receive football scholarship funds.
Snyder explained that several recruits left SHU before the school year began, ending their financial aid package. Other players, he said, still receive aid because they cannot participate due to health-related issues or they left the football program, and remain at SHU.
Snyder said players are not cut from the team, but leave of their own accord.
Football-specific scholarship funds are not tracked in the Financial Aid Office computer system, Dudas said.
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