New NCAA Plan Would Pay Colleges Whose Athletes Do Well in Class
By BRAD WOLVERTON
 
A plan approved on Thursday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Board of Directors would pay colleges up to $100,000 each if their athletes do particularly well in the classroom and a high percentage of them graduate every year.
 
The biggest payouts would go to colleges whose athletics programs make significant improvements in graduating players, while some money would also go to programs that are struggling academically and need assistance.
 
The plan is part of the NCAA's push to get more athletes to graduate.....
 
Under the new incentives package, the NCAA plans to spend $10-million a year on rewards to colleges. Institutions could see their share of that money as early as 2008, said Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford and chairman of the Division I Committee on Academic Performance, in a news conference on Thursday. The committee introduced the proposal at a meeting of the division's Board of Directors in Indianapolis.
 
Half the money, or $5-million annually, would go to institutions whose athletics programs make big improvements in their academic performance over the previous year. An additional $3-million a year would be given to institutions that can demonstrate that they have little money for tutors or programs that help athletes do well in the classroom. The rest of the money would reward athletics programs that show extraordinary academic performance.
 
The money would come from increased revenue the association plans to get from CBS Sports for televising the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
 
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