Duke Trying to Help Needy Players' Families Within NCAA Rules

The economic downturn has impacted some Duke players

Having his football team at home around the country has created logistical problems for coach Davd Cutcliffe, but it’s also created financial hardship for many of the players’ families—from loss of work to higher grocery bills with a football player in the house for a few extra months.

“There are mechanisms in place that Duke’s done to try to give some financial relief to all students (not just athletes) that need it for whatever reason,” Cutcliffe said. “We’ve encouraged those students in that mode to apply. It’s not an automatic approval, but the president set that up—Dr. (Vincent) Price, and (VP of Administration) Kyle Cavanaugh. The Duke administration has been phenomenal through every bit of this with communication to us, the safety of the employees and also being a contributor—I like the fact that they’ve taken what Durham needs very seriously at Duke. So they are listening to the needs of the students. We in athletics are listening to the same thing.”

Obviously, NCAA regulations make it difficult to help the student-athletes directly.

“To what we can legally do,” Cutcliffe said, “there are people that are on training table, and, all of a sudden, they’re not. We didn’t spend that money on them. Can we help reimburse what they’re eating at home? I even had a parent in a serious mode at the very beginning of this talking to me about having three children come home from college at one time. When you live on a tight budget, that budget absolutely blows up. Young people are gonna eat. All three are athletes. Wow. It hit home with me. I can’t personally help. That’s frustrating. But I can listen. I can suggest. I can recommend. And people like that, there are ways to get relief. it’s part of the human part of this thing. It’s not just rah rah football. Every individual case is a little different. We’re having to do a great deal of work, and we do it mostly positionally, and I get involved when cases are extreme. It’s not just coaches. Our entire staff has served our football players extremely well. We’ve tried to listen closely. We’re trying to support them in every way you can. It’s a tough time. We all know that.”


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Shawn Krest
SHAWN KREST

Shawn Krest has covered Duke for the last decade. His work has appeared in The Sporting News, USA Today, CBSSports.com, ESPN.com and dozens of other national and regional outlets. Shawn's work has won awards from the USBWA, PFWA, BWAA and NC Press Association.