Dare to cross Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster if you’re a Hokie football player, and even though you don’t get paid to play football at Tech, he will still take money out of your pocket.
“We’re going to look at that,” Foster answered a reporter asking him a question about a report that Foster having interest in fining players from their “cost of attendance” funds, which are supposed to go to student-athletes cover expenses including academic-related supplies, transportation costs and related items.
“Obviously you need some discipline,” Foster said, complaining about coaches getting in trouble for punishing athletes for transgressions by getting them out of bed early for 6 a.m. wind sprints.
“These guys now, they haven’t had access to money unless they’ve been Pell Grant recipients. So they’ll want that when it’s all said and done at the end of the day,” Foster said.
Foster revealed in response to a follow-up question on the topic that Tech football has done something similar with “bowl games and things of that nature over the years.”
“In the real world, you adhere to the rules and regulations, or you get fired. So we’re not in a position to fire anybody right now. We can fine them a little bit,” Foster said.
And college football is still supposedly an amateur sport. Gotcha.
Update
#Hokies AD Whit Babcock says through a spokesman of any schedule of fines for football players: “It will be discontinued immediately”
— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) August 27, 2015
– Story by Chris Graham