FARGO, N.D. – The North Dakota State University department of athletics today announced it will offer full cost of attendance to scholarship student-athletes in all 16 sports beginning with the 2016-17 season. In addition, scholarship support will be increased in the sports of baseball, men's golf, and men's track and field to bring all NDSU programs to their maximum scholarship limit, per NCAA regulations.
"NDSU has traditionally maintained a broad-based athletics program in which all student-athletes have access to a first-class education and the opportunity to annually compete for championships," said NDSU Director of Athletics Matt Larsen. "With the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, providing the full cost of attendance will allow our student-athletes to focus primarily on their academic and athletic pursuits and our coaches to continue to recruit the best and brightest to North Dakota State University."
Historically, athletic scholarships included tuition, fees, room, board and books. In January 2015, the FBS autonomy conferences passed permissive legislation allowing institutions to cover the full cost of attendance within an athletic scholarship. With this change in legislation, additional support for academic related supplies, transportation, and other miscellaneous expenses associated with attending the institution, can be included in the scholarship.
The anticipated additional cost for NDSU will be up to $3,400 per full scholarship. This initiative will be funded exclusively through private donations. The athletics department has secured lead gifts from several donors that will provide a matching funds program for the first three years of implementation.
NDSU Athletics is launching a new donor website, NDSUAthleticFund.com, that will allow alumni, fans, community members and other Bison supporters within North Dakota and across the country to continue the tradition of success through their financial support.
"We are extremely fortunate at NDSU to have generous and passionate alumni and fans," Larsen said. "They fully understand the impact their financial support has on the student-athlete experience and the ability for our teams to compete for conference championships, NCAA postseason tournaments and national championships."
North Dakota State has a storied history of athletic success including 24 team national championships since 1965 in football, women's basketball, wrestling, softball, men's cross country and women's indoor track and field.
In only seven years since completing a reclassification to NCAA Division I, the Bison have four football national championships, three NCAA men's basketball tournaments, six softball regionals and one super regional, three NCAA women's volleyball postseason appearances, NCAA tournaments in women's soccer, women's golf and baseball, and several All-Americans in track and field, cross country and wrestling.
NDSU is a member of The Summit League and Missouri Valley Football Conference, and recently gained affiliate membership within the Big 12 Conference for its nationally ranked wrestling program.
