Athletic Director Sean Frazier will have a more complete idea of exactly how cost of attendance scholarships will be implemented and the exact dollar figure needed, which he approximated at $800,000 minimally, by June or July.

Frazier pounced on the idea of offering cost of attendance scholarships on Jan. 28, less than two weeks after the autonomy conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — passed the legislation on Jan. 17. Cost of attendance, which goes into effect Aug. 1, covers expenses beyond the tuition, room, board and books included in current athletic scholarships.

Current and prospective student-athletes will be eligible for cost of attendance scholarships beginning in 2015-16.

“We got outside the gate on this pretty aggressively,” Frazier said. “There’s a lot of recruiting things going on and a lot of other things that are happening now. We wanted to make sure if you come to NIU that’s something we’re committed to.”

Frazier said the Athletic Department has been working with the office of admissions and financial aid to figure out how student-athletes will receive the cost of attendance portion of their scholarships. Frazier said the dollar figure for individual cost of attendance is a moving target because the base dollar amount is set by the institution — not the athletic department — and then each individual receives an amount based on his or her level of need.

“We do believe in the fact that the student-athletes’ well-being is job No. 1,” Frazier said. “We stand by that. Our coaches stand by that. Our department stands by that. Our administration stands by that. We need to divert those resources in that area. It’s just something that times have changed, and we’re willing and able to go that route.”

Frazier said the $800,000 for the cost of attendance in has already been projected in the Athletic Department’s operational budget for the next fiscal year.

The Athletic Department has been able to generate more revenue through the new multimedia rights contract with Learfield Sports, premiums seating areas at football and basketball games and shows at the Convocation Center, most recently Brad Paisley and Monster Truck Nationals, Frazier said.

“We’ve been good stewards of our resources,” Frazier said. “… At the end of the day we’ve been having pipelines of shows and externals – revenues that were not already existing or what we had we’ve enhanced. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we’re going to be diverting those resources toward cost of attendance.”

Frazier said generating the revenue that will be needed to cover the cost of attendance scholarships in the future will be on the Athletic Department, especially with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget cuts reducing funds to schools.

“We have to make sure the monies that we are looking for are external in nature,” Frazier said. “… We’re not going back to the students. We’re not going back to the student fees. We’re not going back to the institution giving us money. And how the governor has put the cuts we’re certainly not going back to the state to be able to do that. So, we really have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.”

As for what exactly Frazier has in mind for the future to pull in more external revenue, he’s still in the idea phase with other personnel in the Athletic Department.

“We have some need financially, and we can’t pass it along to the students, we can’t pass it along to our fan base, but we’re going to have to create some other ways to engage people so they can spend their discretionary dollar, and that’s where our focus is,” Frazier said. “And quite frankly that’s why I was hired. So, I got to put that on my shoulder; you got to give me fourth and 1, and I got to get through that.”