Based on 400 athletes, that's up to another $800,000 per year.  Not sure where we're going to get that kind of cash.

Many athletes in some sports only get partial scholarships, so I'm not sure how this would tie into that, but I'm guessing it's not going to cost a full $2,000 for all 400 players, but maybe per scholarship. By my count, Ohio is limited to somewhere around 230 scholarships. That's still $460,000 a year, and that's a lot of money.

"The increase in aid comes in the form of either $2,000 annually or the full cost of attendance, whichever is less. It can only be applied to full scholarships in football and basketball, and to those athletes who receive full scholarships in other sports." [Quoted from Collegefootballtalk.com]

AND its going to have to be given to an equal number of male and female athletes, in equal $ amounts. Interesting to see how this plays out.

Of greater import, it seems to me, is the change allowing schools to formally issue scholarships (grants) for multiple years, in essence telling a kid "you sign up to play here son, and you're guaranteed a 5-year scholarship, even if you don't turn into a good college athlete". It could be very interesting to see how this plays out over the next few years, how it affects team's recruiting (and oversigning) practices...it will be especially interesting if the "guarantee" length of a scholarship grant is announced in advance (national signing day?).

Also, and I think very good for student-athletes, is the rule change that formally allows schools to offer financial aid to students after they have exhausted their eligibility but before they've finished their degree...(though if you can't finish your degree in 4-5 years...never mind never mind, forget I said anything)

Edit: it also occurs to me that schools could start to emphasize differences in cost of living? $2000 will go A LOT further in Athens, or BG, Kent, Huntington, etc. than it would in LA, Miami, Seattle, Philadelphia(?), or especially in NYC or Washington DC (those last two are obviously more relevant to Basketball than Football)

Roughly $11 per student, per semester. I'm betting that happens before drop down to FCS.

Taking baby steps away from amateur sport.

This is an NCAA regulation. There is nothing to say Ohio (or anybody else) has to institute it. The MAC as a whole could even decide to prohibit the additional stipend.

It will make recruiting an even bigger, but now within rules, bidding process. And IMHO, almost all of college sports problems at this point in time begin with recruiting. This will make it worse.
 
I submit that it is not a great leap to change the words "multiple year scholarship offer" to "contract negotiation" and "scholarship limits" to "salary cap." And at this point, college athletics is officially a professional league not only in practice but in definition.

It won't be long until some departments have assistant directors of football operations to provide contract negotiating and salary cap planning.

The only thing I like about this is that the comparision to European soccer league structure becomes official. Which allows me to compare Temple to Wigan.

I also believe in all the probable negative fallout from this and I lose more respect for the NCAA with each passing day.  The hands on the amatuer collegiate doomsday clock just went to 11:59:00

That said, in the interests of maintaining a facade of "fairness" for the smaller schools, can a member school choose to apply it at the individual level rather than the sport level?  Assuming we have 1 superstar QB that we want to ante up the $2K for and we give the same amount to a superstar volleyball player, does that pass the guidelines?

I would think they would still get a portion of the $2,000. Whatever the grand value of the full scholarship is, which is now going to be $2,000 more, I would think they get the same proportion as before. So someone on a half scholarship now would be getting an extra $1,000.