Below is a response I posted on the Virginia forum - thought I would post to a more appropriate forum and see if anyone has any thoughts on the matter. Seems stipends have been approved and schools are utilizing their own "custom" cost of attendance figures historically prepared by the administration (not the athletic office) when calculating the stipend. In the article I read, it said you could get an additional $1,500 at Auburn if you went to summer school. Article quoted Auburn as saying their stipend could benefit them and those with smaller stipends could suffer (felt like the article was more focused on football/basketball with full ride scholarships - stipends are pro rated based on scholarship percentage).
Saw a recent list that seemed to have a huge range from almost nothing to over $6K a year - apparently even more if you attend summer school. Interestingly, the larger dollars were not necessarily coming from urban type schools. Auburn was near the top, but saw where Alabama was much lower on this particular list (only had about 60 teams in all). Similarly, Vanderbilt, much more urban than either Auburn or Alabama, was also quite low. Apparently the schools are using what the admissions office has compiled for student recruiting and there was discussion about whether the athletic offices might work to influence these amounts to be as high as possible so as to gain a recruiting advantage.
Anyone else see any weird differences in the schools you are familiar with?
Mark Berman