Can NCAA Policy Effect Student Costs? Evidence from the 2015 Adoption of Student-Athlete Cost of Attendance Stipends

In 2015, 65 universities in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I autonomous conferences changed their scholarship policy by allowing universities to give student-athletes cost of attendance stipends. While student-athletes welcomed this policy change, many people within the higher education community felt the policy change would lead to higher costs for the general student body. This paper provides the results of a difference-in-differences estimation designed to examine if the 2015 NCAA student-athlete scholarship policy change correlated with higher university-published estimated cost of attendance. The findings show a positive, statistically significant relationship between the policy change and estimated student cost of attendance.