First time poster, but long time lurker. Thought I would throw in a few anecdotes from a former D2 football player to illustrate just how crazy some of these rules can be. I was personally involved in the first 2, while the third was a teammate. These happened 25+ years ago.
1. Teammate and I were asked to give a short speech at end-of-year awards banquet for our former conference. Driving there, being at the banquet, and driving home took probably took around 4 hours total. They gave us each $25 as an honorarium. We had to turn that into the compliance office so they could return it to the conference. They couldn't even pay us for gas - about 100 miles worth. Obviously, we would not have been invited to speak if not for our lofty status as D2 football players, but the $25 honorarium certainly wasn't anything more than any other speaker would have received.
2. My mother was running a fundraiser for a group at my former HS. It was a dunk tank at a local carnival type event. She needed dunkees. I volunteered, not as a football player, but as an alumnus and as a son. I imagine there may have been a handful people who would know I played college football, but that was not going to be advertised. As far as most people would know, I would just be some Joe Shmoe being dunked. School said, not so fast - that may violate NCAA policy.
3. Teammate appeared in a small newspaper ad for a local store. From what I can recall, it made no mention of his status as a D2 football player. I always assumed he shopped there quite often and that is how he landed the gig. I can't imagine it paid very much, if anything. He was suspended for 1 game.
To me, these are much crazier outcomes from NCAA policy than a superstar D1 athlete trying to cash in on his/her image. I realize there is a slippery slope, but there should be some allowance for athletes to do/earn what any other non-athlete could for the same work. Why should they be penalized? I suppose the now allowed stipend on top of the scholarship helps in this manner, but there is still room for improvement.
One final anecdote concerning NCAA and money. I did not receive any football scholarship money until my 4th year. I had been receiving significant academic scholarships. In fact, my redshirt freshman year, my total academic scholarships (some one-time scholarships, some renewable) were greater than tuition + room/board. Yeah for me. My 4th year, coach said I would get X amount of $ from a partial football scholarship. Later this was reduced when compliance realized, that, when combined with my academic scholarship, I would have greater than a full-ride. My academic scholarship was about 80% of a full-ride. I know, I know, poor me with my full-ride scholarship, but why couldn't I fully benefit from what I earned - especially considering the academic side was so much bigger than the football side.
