Mississippi State's Alston awards include 'a lot of options' to earn

Mississippi State was among the first universities to provide its athletes with Alston awards, which refer to education-related financial payments that institutions provide athletes for their academic achievement. Alston awards stem from NCAA v. Alston, which concluded with the Supreme Court of the United States ruling 9-0 in favor of the plaintiffs in June 2021.

Mississippi State’s Alston awards are called the Hall Academic Awards in honor of donors Michael and Valarie Hall. The university distributed the awards for the first time in February 2022. The average award amount for the awards earned in the fall semester was roughly $3,200, according to a university release.

Mississippi State recently distributed the awards that its athletes earned in the spring semester.

Each institution can determine if, and how, it provides the awards.

Alston awards are capped at $5,980 annually per athlete. In addition to NIL deals, Alston awards are another relatively new source of income for college athletes.

“The thing we stress is this is an academic award that you are earning,” Mississippi State Senior Deputy Athletic Director/Compliance Bracky Brett recently told On3. “It’s not a scholarship. This is an award, just like we give out letter jackets and bowl rings and everything else. This is an award incentive for the student-athletes.”

In order to qualify for Alston awards, athletes must be enrolled at Mississippi State, in good academic standing, a member of their respective team for the entire season, not have entered the Transfer Portal and not be facing any disciplinary action from the university, Brett said.

“That’s just a quick overview of our criteria,” he said.

Mississippi State offers ‘a lot of options’ to reach $5,980

There’s a $2,000 award for players who are retained on an athletic program’s roster and remain eligible from one semester to the next. There are $1,000 awards available for athletes who make the SEC Academic Honor Roll or who do community service “at a certain level.”

Those who qualify for the Bulldog Honor Roll, which honors Mississippi State athletes each semester who have a 3.0 GPA or higher, can earn a $500 award.

Athletes can earn an award for having 100% attendance at tutoring sessions.

“There’s different values for each award, obviously,” Brett said. “We give them a lot of options on how they can earn these academic awards.”

Brett said he as an Excel spreadsheet with each athlete’s name, as well as the various education-related awards that are available. While many schools divide the maximum award amount of $5,980 equally across two semesters or three quarters, Mississippi State athletes can earn awards incrementally up to the established limit. They can earn different amounts each semester.

For example, Brett said Mississippi State athletes received in September anywhere from $2,000 to $3,500 to $4,000, based on their academic achievement last spring.

Mississippi State also has an award that’s tied to graduation, such that a graduating athlete is guaranteed to earn the maximum allowable amount of $5,980 for that academic year. The graduation award amount for each athlete is the difference between $5,980 and the sum of the other academic awards an athlete had earned up to that point in the academic year.

“We want to reward graduation, obviously,” Brett said.

Brett also noted that every new athlete, including freshmen and transfers, who enrolls at Mississippi State receives an iPad. “I don’t even know why we use the word ‘textbooks’ anymore,” Brett said, laughing, as he noted that many modern educational materials are digital.