APLeave it to Steve Spurrier to continue to stump for ideas that either 1) have zero chance of being adopted or 2) are downright awful.
(Don’t get crazy, South Carolina fans. We love him for it.)
Though scheduling and playoff formats have been dominating this year’s SEC spring meetings, the South Carolina coach told Scott Hood of GamecockCentral.com that he, along with the 13 other conference coaches, “voted unanimously” Tuesday to give athletes $300 per game for “game-related expenses.”
Spurrier was one of seven SEC coaches last summer to support giving athletes a $300 game-day stipend out of their own pockets. Within a year, the number in favor of the idea (minus the detail that takes the money directly from the coach’s checking account) has now doubled to a unanimous vote.
Which is cool and all… it just doesn’t mean anything. There is simply no way — none, zilch, nada — this idea passes by ADs and presidents despite the fact that SEC commissioner Mike Slive said (again) this week he supports adding upward of $2,000 to the value of an athletic scholarship.
The legislation for that additional stipend is currently under further review by the NCAA.
But give credit where it’s due. Spurrier has been sticking to his guns on the subject, despite what anyone else has to say.
That’s a fair price. It’s a tough sport and requires many, many hours of preparation and physical training/conditioning. The Football Athlete has to train practically year round and one slip can cost him his scholarship and career. There’s just too much on the line for these ball players not to get a stipend and I’m one that thinks it should be full time. jmo
A great idea to pay a stipend to the players out of the coaches’ pockets. Apparently, the last part was lost along along the way…ha….though the well paid SEC head football coaches would not miss the amount. Great idea, Ol’ Ball Coach, and to have it unanimous is quite rare among SEC football coaches who are so competitive. ADs and presidents will put the kibosh on the idea, with a big NEIN! Sorry, that is case. But maybe Slive’s support of increasing the scholarships by 2 grand will help many make ends meet with the higher cost of school now than a few years ago. Most athletes cannot get any other job due to the practice schedules and are falling that much or more short each year on the athletic scholarships as they are now.
Is this in addition to what they are already receiving?
What about the kids in non-revenue sports?
Cam newton agrees.
Since $EC players are already getting paid, this just makes it easier to hide the illegal stuff.
I think the author meant to use the title:
Spurrier: SEC coaches unanimously pay players
Horrible idea IMO. As all the scandals prove, they don’t use the money for living essentials or supporting their family. They spend it on tattoos & weed. If they need money so bad, they should go straight to the Arena League, CFL or some other pro league that would serve as a minor league option. Don’t want the six figure tuition paid for? Refuse it & go fend for yourself in the real world. The minute we start paying college players, they’ll want to organize a union. Then it will trickle down to the elite high school players sooner or later.
For those who are against the idea, what’s wrong with covering some expenses for the athletes who generate millions of dollars for the university?
For those who favor the idea, do you really think paying $300 per game will somehow prevent a student from taking $10,000 from an agent if it was offered?
If this happens, what will recruiting be like for other confrences? Horrible. Coaches will recruit their butts off and get only like a 3 stars, while the SEC will continue to dominate. Who would want even more of the one sided games we see? Who wants to see their team get continually beat, over and over again? This will all start with paying players in one conference. This would create an unfair advantage.
Let’s be real…Spurrier only wants to make official what he’s already doing. His accountant asked about receipts for his deductions but his illiterate jailcocks can’t write them even if they were allowed.
I was a research assistant while in school and was paid a stipend for my work. The stipend amounted to very little per hour of work and was intended to do little else but make up for the fact that the job was time consuming enough to prevent me from being able to take a part time job elsewhere and my research provided some value to the school.
I’ve never understood why football players couldn’t be treated the same way. Their work is far more valuable to the school than mine was and they too have difficulty maintaining another job due to the time requirements of being college athletes. It’s not an outrageous amount of money we’re talking about here, just enough for living expenses.
I’m all for it, there are already similar programs out there that focus on other areas instead of Athletics. For Example, I was on an Army ROTC Scholarship in college. That Scholarship covered room and board and gave a monthly stipend to cover expenses such as uniform maintenance, haircuts, laundry, etc I had to purchase and other Army ROTC related expenses. If the ADs want to adopt a similar practice, I don’t see the harm. Hell it’s already being done in other areas related to college academics. Yeah I had to serve time in the Army (for which I’m still serving), but the stipend helped out.
@gamustangdude
If big time CFB hadn’t evolved into nothing more nor less than an NFL minor league, I would agree with your post. A small (I guess that’s a relevance matter) stipend would almost surely morph into a bidding war for an athlete’s services. It’s been proven, over and over again, that football managers, both NFL and CFB, always seek to buy the best players. They just can’t seem to help themselves. Someone, in this case the school’s ADs or Presidents, must exercise control or there will be no limit to what any stipend will end up as. By the way, thanks for your service, and I’ll point out that pretty much everyone who draws an ROTC check WILL end up in the military, unlike foot ball players and the NFL.
I agree with paying all players no matter what conference their in..These kids play in front of 100,000 fans every weekend.An feed as just as many families.. #paythesekids
Can’t restrict to one conference let alone one sport. Would never, never pass NCAA rules to allow one conference bringing in tons of money to pay football players, what about all the other schools out there? Gives an unfair advantage. That plus the fact you’re isolating it to one sport, what about Title IX? And are you paying all players the same regardless of playing time or position? And if you pay them doesn’t that mean they can form a ‘union’ because in fact, if you pay them they in a sense are employees. Like Ben says, nada, zip, zilch chance of passing anywhere. SEC can pass these things all they want, its just a bunch of hot air.