The Big Ten announced that its schools have agreed to provide multi-year scholarships to all athletes in all sports.
The conference made the agreement official on Wednesday and it's the first step among a likely many from Power Five conferences when it comes to increasing athlete benefits.
Per the release, a student's scholarship "will neither be reduced nor cancelled provided he or she remains a member in good standing with the community, the university and the athletics department." If a student leaves the school for a "bona fide reason, that student-athlete may return to the institution at any time to complete his or her degree with the assistance of an athletic scholarship."
The Big Ten also said it would work towards the "implementation of additional student-athlete welfare proposals through individual institutional action, conference-wide action or under the NCAA autonomy governance structure, including full grant-in-aids to meet cost of education and improved medical insurance."
Indiana and Maryland, two Big Ten schools, have been leaders in the movement to guarantee multi-year scholarships for all athletes. Indiana introduced an athlete's bill of rights while Maryland announced the "Maryland Way Guarantee."
Now that the Big Ten has made multi-year scholarships a conference mandate, you can expect other conferences to soon follow suit with announcements of their own. The NCAA approved autonomy for the Power Five conferences in August, allowing them to make their own rules and increase benefits.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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