PIERRE - South Dakota's six traditional state universities spent about $578,000 for insurance coverage of student athletes participating in two dozen intercollegiate sports during the current school year.
But the student athletes could be asked to pay next school year.
The universities' council of presidents has been working on an athletics insurance plan for the past two years. It meets NCAA Division I and Division II as well as NAIA requirements.
The plan has a $90,000 limit on accident medical expenses per injury. The NCAA and the NAIA provide catastrophic coverage above the universities' coverage.
The state Board of Regents, whose members govern the university system, adopted a policy last summer requiring that student athletes have insurance coverage and that it be provided by the universities.
The universities paid for the insurance from their budgets for the current school year, but the regents last week decided each university's president should be allowed to decide how to pay for it next school year.
The regents will let the universities charge student athletes for the coverage unless a student athlete can prove he or she is already covered by another insurance plan.
In the case of such opt-outs, the university will pay for coverage of the student athlete regardless because the systemwide policy is based on a total number of participants.
The current vendor is the Dissinger Reed firm of Overland Park, Kan. The University of South Dakota had previously used Dissinger Reed for six years. The USD plan became the basis for systemwide approach.
Janice Minder, student affairs officer for the university system, said there was discussion about charging student athletes for coverage in the current school year, but it didn't happen.
The current year's costs by campus:
• Black Hills State University: $87,000, or $239 per student athlete.
• Northern State University: $93,000 or $239 per student athlete.
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology: $63,000 or $239 per student athlete.
• University of South Dakota: $85,000 or $175 per student athlete.
• South Dakota State University: $199,000 or $379 per student athlete.
• Dakota State University: $51,000 or $188 per student athlete.
The universities don't have authority from the Legislature to operate a self-insurance pool covering the student athletes, according to the regents' chief legal counsel, James Shekleton.