Compliance Corner

Babe Ruth goes 2-for-4 in his first game of the year. Which batting performance in his second game will increase his batting average the most?

a. 2-for-2.

b. 3-for-3.

c. 4-for-4.

d. Doesn't matter because his hits and at bats are the same in each case.

The right answer, of course, is c: 4-for-4.

Which takes us to Proposal 2010-75 and book awards.

What Proposal 2010-75 does
Two things:

1. Increases the financial aid equivalency figure for calculation purposes for books from $400 to $800 and

2. Eliminates partial book awards. If a student-athlete receives any portion of a book allowance, $800 shall be used in the numerator and denominator of the equivalency calculation. 

So how does this proposal work in practice? We'll see shortly. 

But before we begin, remember that the value of book awards is merely a placeholder in the equivalency calculation. Each student-athlete could have a different cost of books depending on the courses s/he takes.

Room, board, tuition, and fees can often be identical for most students. But books? Nope. That's why the placeholder concept makes sense. It removes a number of accounting and compliance headaches.

The current figure of $400 is artificially lower than the actual cost to outfit a student-athlete with books today. So was the previous placeholder of $200. And so is the proposed figure of $800. We'll see what the future holds.

Now on to the examples.

Full grant student-athletes
This one is easy. A full grant is a full grant is a full grant. In an equivalency sport, a full grant amounts to a 1.0 equivalency, regardless of the value of the books placeholder because all the components of aid in the numerator (including the books placeholder) equal their counterparts in the denominator. Proposal 2010-75 has no effect here.

Equivalency award less than a full grant, without books
In these cases, the equivalency fraction will be smaller under Proposal 2010-75 because the denominator is increasing due to the larger value for the books placeholder while the numerator for the books component remains equal to 0.

To continue the Ruth example from above, if The Sultan of Swat had followed up his 2-for-4 opening day performance with an 0-for-3, his batting average will go down. It'll go down even more if he goes 0-for-4, and more still if he goes 0-for-5.

Equivalency award less than a full grant, with books
In these cases, the equivalency fraction will be higher under Proposal 2010-75.

As we've seen from the Ruth example above, increasing the numerator and denominator of a fraction by the same amount results in a larger number.

Let's go to the blackboard: