Now, to be fair, the NCAA only ruled that multiyear scholarships were legal as of October 2011, so that “never been done before” line doesn’t mean quite as much as you might have thought. But nonetheless, this is a major step forward for college athletes.

Ever since their inception, athletic scholarships ­— football scholarships in particular — have only been guaranteed for one year at a time, and then are renewed at the coach or athletic director’s discretion. As a result, it is depressingly common for an athlete to have his or her scholarship terminated for reasons that aren’t totally under their control. And if an athlete has his or her scholarship terminated, that potentially could deal a death blow to their education.

With one-year guarantees, football players lost their scholarships on a regular basis, usually for reasons that weren’t totally their fault. For example, coaches have been known to terminate the scholarships of players who didn’t spend enough time doing sport-related activities, such as lifting weights or watching film, because they were studying or working. Players who suffered significant injuries also have been known to find themselves metaphorically out on the street. I believe that isn’t fair to the athlete.

An extremely small proportion of college athletes will go on to play professionally. Those who don’t will need to fall back on their education. And if they’ve lost their scholarship for one reason or another and have been rendered unable to acquire said education without finding some other way to pay for it — tough no matter what your situation is — they’re in trouble. Out-of-state tuition at MSU for the 2011-12 school year totaled more than $31,000. In-state was closer to $12,000. To find that kind of burden suddenly placed on you and/or your family is going to be an issue. There’s no getting around that.

Yes, average, nonathletic students are faced with that burden also. But to go from paying nothing to paying $31,000 without any warning and through no fault of their own is not something the average student is faced with for the most part.

I applaud those coaches in the Big Ten that have given their recruits four-year guarantees. The point of going to college is to better yourself educationally, and multiyear scholarships will allow athletes a significantly better chance to achieve that. Admittedly, at this point, only the elite recruits are receiving guarantees, but I believe that all incoming athletes will get them before too long.

I should note that I’ve been referring to all college athletes even though only football players have received four-year guarantees. This is because football and basketball are the trendsetters of collegiate athletics. If football starts guaranteeing scholarships over multiple years, it is only a matter of time before other sports follow suit.

There are a couple of caveats to the multiyear scholarships, of course. It is still possible for athletes to have their scholarships terminated, but it is no longer solely at the coach’s discretion. The university as a whole would have to make the decision to terminate the guarantee, and they could only do so in certain instances. Players in poor academic standing or who are in legal trouble can still lose their scholarships, for example.

But that’s a different situation than the ones I mentioned earlier. The new multiyear guarantees place the responsibility more on the players to make sure they keep themselves in a position to succeed academically and athletically. That’s not to say that they still can’t fail, just that it will be up to them to make sure they don’t.

At the end of the day, the point of going to college is the same no matter who you are or what sport you play: graduation. Athletic scholarships that are guaranteed over multiple years instead of just one will give coaches less incentive to ignore their players’ educations and allow the players more opportunities to pursue them.

So thank you, Big Ten and MSU. You’ve made me proud to represent your respective organizations. Now if only we could get the rest of the country on board.

Caleb Nordgren is a State News staff writer and journalism sophomore. Reach him at nordgren@msu.edu.