Glass: IU to spend approximately $900,000 to honor scholarships for returning spring seniors

On a Facebook Live interview released by Indiana on Friday night, outgoing athletic director Fred Glass said IU’s athletic department will honor scholarships for spring athletes who wish to return in 2021.

In March, the NCAA announced that it would extend an extra year of eligibility to spring sports athletes whose seasons were cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. In doing so, the NCAA left it up to universities to decide whether they would welcome back seniors on scholarship, and also whether they would extend the same (or less) financial aid to athletes for their extra season. Wisconsin, for instance, announced in April that it would not pursue scholarship waivers for spring sports seniors.

However, Indiana will. And it’s a decision that Glass says will cost IU nearly $1 million.

“We took advantage of the NCAA’s permission to grant them another year of participation and honor their scholarships,” Glass said. “This was not an insignificant decision. That was probably a $900,000 decision. But we felt like that’s something we need to do because we had the opportunity to do it.”

Glass did not specify how many athletes will be taking advantage of the waiver.