This is great news! According to the Washington Post, Annie Apple noticed a text message on her phone from Mark Pantoni, the director of football personnel for the Ohio State football team. The text delivered news she had hoped for since last March: The NCAA had announced a program to pay travel expenses for the parents of football players in the College Football Playoff championship game.
Apple, the mother of Buckeyes freshman cornerback Eli Apple, logged on to Twitter to make certain she had read Pantoni’s text correctly. For months, she had spearheaded the effort to help families in need of financial help with travel. The flood of messages overwhelmed her, and she began to cry.
“Families are just ecstatic,” Apple said. “Do you know why? I think for the first time, people recognized us. For them to hear our pleas is just amazing. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
In an unprecedented step, the NCAA granted the College Football Playoff a waiver to defray travel expenses for parents of players attending the national championship game Monday night in Arlington, Tex. As part of the NCAA’s pilot program, the governing body also will pay travel expenses of players’ parents for both the men’s and women’s basketball Final Fours.
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