re: Class of 2016 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: Waiting On Demetris Robertson Edition

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Since the NCAA passed new scholarship rules in January, the cost-of-attendance discussion has simmered.

How would schools adjust? And how much would student athletes end up receiving?

Those answers are slowly coming to the surface and the numbers are shifting. At Alabama, the difference between a traditional athletics scholarship and the new full-cost scholarship went up sharply from last year to the 2015-16 academic year.

The cost-of-attendance gap rose 20.5 percent for in-state athletes and 39.2 percent for out-of-state students. That accounts for the stipends that will pay in-state athletes $4,172 and $5,386 for those from outside the state. Figures are determined by the school's financial aid office.

Previous estimates placed Alabama's cost of attendance at $2,892, but that the actual number for out-of-state athletes is 86 percent higher. The $5,386 out-of-state figure is believed to be the third-highest in the nation behind Tennessee ($5,666) and Auburn ($5,586).

While tuition rose minimally (3.2 percent in-state and 3.9 percent out-of-state), the transportation piece of the pie jumped sharply.Information provided by the University of Alabama points to an increase in tuition, residence halls "as well as increases in the average consumer expenditure numbers and the cost of travel."These stipends pay for the transportation and other miscellaneous costs not covered by traditional scholarships. Previously, athletic scholarships covered room, board, tuition, books and fees. These cost-of-attendance scholarship increases apply to all full scholarships from the university, but this is the first year NCAA has allowed the stipends to include the full coast of attendance.

The calculation for out-of-state athletes jumped 75.4 percent from 2014-15 to 2015-16, according to figures provided by the university. That cost is now $3,020 for out-of-state athletes where it was $1,722 a year ago. For in-state athletes, the number jumped 42 percent (from $1,272 to $1,806).

University spokesperson Deborah Lane explained the reason for the change. She said the school adjusted transportation costs "to more accurately reflect the growth in our out-of-state enrollment and the increased cost of travel for them."

"UA determined that the Department of Education allowed transportation costs to and from the student's permanent residence and the campus, rather than just to and from their local residence to class," Lane told AL.com.

Out-of-state students accounted for 60 percent of the freshman class in 2013 ? up from 33 percent in 2007."Using averages, UA adjusted our transportation costs to more accurately reflect the growth in our out-of-state enrollment and the increased cost of travel for them," she told AL.com.

Lane provided the formula used to calculate the transportation component of the stipend: "For in-state students, costs are calculated based on the assumption that most students live within 5 miles of campus: 50 miles per week (multiplied by) 34 weeks (an academic year) multiplied by 57 cents per mile and an average of two round trips home per semester. For out-of-state students, transportation is based on a weighted average of mileage based on an 8-hour travel radius and an average of two round trips home per semester."

Miscellaneous costs, the other factor in the stipend, rose 8 percent for in-state athletes and 10.2 percent for those from out of state.

These new scholarship changes created a new marketplace in the cut-throat world of recruiting. Schools with higher stipends could use that as a marketing tool. The SEC proposed an amendment to the January rule change that would require schools to report variances in the cost-of-attendance figures, but it was voted down.

Alabama coach Nick Saban addressed the cost-of-attendance scholarship impact on recruiting at SEC Media Days.

"This has not changed our recruiting, and there's not been a lot of questions asked about it," he said. "Now, maybe it will have an impact in the future. I don't think that's the intention of cost of attendance. I think it's to improve the quality of the student-athlete's life, not to be used as a recruiting tool."

Saban has been a proponent of doing more for athletes financially, but was concerned in May with how the cost of attendance scholarships would work.

"To do it the way we did it is going to be a nightmare," Saban said before a Crimson Caravan stop in Atlanta in May. "We've spent 100 years in the NCAA trying to make everything equal — so no extra benefits, nobody could get something that somebody else couldn't get. Alright. Now you leave it up to the institution, and I think some people have manipulated their numbers because they've significantly changed from last year to this year, and that's not the spirit of the rule.

"Everybody has historically from an academic standpoint tried to keep the cost of attendance down. It's a benefit to the students. It's a benefit to their scholarships. Now all of a sudden it's going to be different, and I don't think that's good."

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