Purdue announces academic bonuses for student-athletes

Purdue will begin giving out academic bonuses to student-athletes. Players will receive cash compensation for hitting academic incentives. However, details on those academic incentives have not yet been determined.

Players will be able to make a maximum of $5,980 from reaching their academic incentives at Purdue. Full scholarship athletes who reach all their incentives will be able to make the entire amount. Athletes on partial scholarships, however, will only be able to make a percentage equal to their scholarship.

The money to pay these bonuses is either coming out of the athletics budget or from donations, as there is no direct revenue stream for these bonuses.

These academic incentives are different from the typical NIL deal in several different ways. Importantly, this is money coming directly from the school and not from a third party. Schools can do this because of the Alston v. NCAA ruling, which ruled that the NCAA limiting compensation for education-related costs was a violation of anti-trust laws. This allows schools to provide an academic bonus, exactly as Purdue is doing.

Purdue isn’t alone

Purdue is far from the only school that is adding academic incentives for student-athletes.

“In the Big Ten, there are several schools that are approaching it that way,” Purdue Athletic Director Mike Bobinski said. “The others who are more generously resourced are saying everyone can qualify if they hit the benchmarks.”

Among the Big Ten schools to announce these bonuses is Ohio State. Their requirements for a bonus have been published by the Columbus Dispatch. Athletes must be fully enrolled, maintain good academic standing with the university, earn minimum credit hours, meet NCAA-mandated progress toward degree requirements, and earn all available Academic Progress Rate points. However, those are just the requirements at Ohio State. Each school sets its own standards.

This is happening outside the Big 10 too. Schools like Baylor are taking advantage of this rule change, too. Meanwhile, in April of 2022, ESPN reported that 22 FBS schools were operating an academic incentive program of some kind. That number is steadily growing.