Virginia Tech considering potential monetary fines of its amateur athletes, says coach

Update: Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock said this will not be happening.

Cost of attendance funds are a small help in giving college athletes the money they are richly entitled to, so naturally it didn’t take long for someone to say something dumb about them. Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster, you’re up!

Why, that sounds an awful lot like something an employer would do to an employee. And we all know the NCAA and its esteemed member institutions would certainly want to avoid their relationship with athletes taking that kind of turn. A Virginia Tech spokesman has already stepped in and said fines are only being considered as a last resort and not as a routine punishment, but that doesn’t really fix what’s wrong with this picture.

This isn’t even the first time Virginia Tech has fined players, as they took money out of former safety Aaron Rouse’s bowl stipend for committing personal fouls back in the 2006 season.

I’m guessing Foster didn’t stop to think how it would sound if the richest assistant coach in the country, making a yearly salary of $1.3 million, suggested players be fined out of money that goe towards living expenses. In-state students at Virginia Tech will receive $3,280 for the year, while out-of-state students get $3,620. That money, if you divide it into 10-month installments, is just over $300 a month.

There’s a big difference between “looking at” fining players and implementing a fine system that draws out of cost-of-attendance funds. Considering the legal ramifications involved, one would expect that this doesn’t go through at Virginia Tech, but you have to wonder why Foster even said this at all. The only thing he’s done is make himself and the rest of the coaches there look like ogres trying to steal their players’ lunch money.