Oregon Ducks help spearhead movement to pay athletes for getting good grades

Always at the forefront of change. The Ducks will be paying players ‘academic bonuses’ for getting good grades this year.

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For much of their history, the Oregon Ducks have made a point to be at the center of change and innovations in collegiate athletics. That notion has not changed with the introduction of name, image, and likeness over the past year.

In fact, you could argue that Oregon is even more at the forefront of change with NIL in the picture.

After creating Division Street, launching NFTs, and hosting an athlete-centric AirBNB, the Ducks are seemingly always on the lookout for ways to help their athletes live a better life. According to a new report from ESPN, Oregon is now one of 22 schools at the FBS level that will be offering “academic bonuses” for players who do well in school.

“According to information gathered by ESPN in the past several months from public records requests and a voluntary survey, only 22 of the 130 FBS-level schools say they have plans in place to provide these academic bonus payments to their athletes this year,” wrote ESPN’s Dan Murphy. 

While offering players a way to make money is always a good benefit for recruiting, this is also a great way to make sure your athletes are holding up the “student” part of their responsibilities as well. As Dan Lanning said when coming to Oregon, he wanted to make sure that they grew better men in Eugene, and not just better football players.

One of the biggest recruiting pitches that Lanning has had when talking to prospects over the past few months at Oregon is that they plan to look further than just the football field and weight room; they plan to set up the players for a successful life after football as well.

Making sure they get good grades in school is imperative to that.

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