The arms race begins.
Alabama football coach Nick Saban has called cost of attendance a "nightmare" because of varying numbers by schools and concerns the figures could be fudged. He even suggested the NFL's salary cap could be a model to cap stipends for college players, missing the point that the Ed O'Bannon ruling won't allow such collusion and the NFL salary cap gets negotiated by a players union that doesn't exist in college sports.
Don't feel too bad for Saban, though. As it turns out, Alabama's cost of attendance stipends will rank among the leaders nationally at $5,386 for out-of-state players and $4,172 for in-state players, according to information the university provided to CBSSports.