Alabama releases '15-16 cost of attendance numbers

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Alabama . . . trailing . . . Tennessee . . . and Auburn

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Oh boy.

(no message)

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1. Tennessee $5,666 2. Auburn $5,586 3. Alabama $5,386

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Nothing new there - Auburn has always had to pay more than Alabama for their players and Tennessee just confirms their inner Anti-Christ.

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Interesting...Alabama's cost of attendance went up from $3,298 to $5,386 in less than a year. That is an increase of 63%. Why does it cost so much more this year than it did last year in Tuscaloosa? Is it related to supply and demand of Houndstooth...or are they massaging the numbers now that it actually means something?

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bolded is whats up

this will quickly become the new way to pay off players

schools will simply say COA is higher so the players need more money.

Who actually comes up with these numbers? From what I have seen you can pretty much name your price.

Should have made it 10k imho

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Nothing new there - Auburn has always had to pay more than Alabama for their players and Tennessee just confirms their inner Anti-Christ.

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In all seriousness, UA had to up the COA payment to keep up with Auburn. They compete directly, particularly for recruits in Alabama and Georgia and AU paid twice as much. An extra $2,800 in cash is enough to sway some recruits.

I said this when they released last years numbers and the COA cash was half of Auburns. It was a no-brainer that they would have to change to keep up.

Kentucky's number is currently $3,598.00 for out-of-state students.

Compare that to Louisville's $5,202.00 for a school with cheaper tuition and board (by more than $3,000).

The loophole here is each school's "other" expense. This is a completely arbitrary number given by the school to federal government to represent "living expenses."

So Louisville randomly decided that their "living expenses" were more than $2,000 higher per year than Kentucky's, despite being located in a town 60 miles west of Lexington with no provable difference in the actual cost of living.

Athletic departments don't dictate this number or, at least until now, didn't really have a say-so in the number. College administrations want to keep the number low so that their school appears affordable.

But now, powerful athletic departments (like Alabama's) just ring up the administration and say, "Throw a couple thousand on the cost of living category" and so they do and so they can pay more.

I anticipate that you'll see coaches and administrations answering questions about ballooning cost of living allowances with things like, "Well they need new laptops every semester" and "Can't expect them to walk to class so we need to allow for cars" and "Seems a waste to rent an apartment for a semester when you can just buy a condo on the beach."

These numbers won't climb steadily, but will rise as some programs with power and influence push the boundaries and others follow suit.

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couldnt pay me enough to live in alabama

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Are you a good/great college football player? If not, who cares?

Where do you live, by the way?