Cost of attendance scholarships are coming this fall, and hardly a peep has been said in their opposition. In the day and age of billion-dollar TV contracts, few have stood in the way of athletes’ ability to collect low-four figures sums to cover the full cost of their so-called full rides.
Enter Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.
In an ACC coaches’ teleconference Wednesday, Swinney voiced opposition to the new piece of legislation. “There’s no question, it’s a nightmare. The intent is good because we’re finally modernizing the scholarship to reflect 2015,” Swinney told the Post and Courier. “But there’s some negative unintended consequences, and there’s no question it’s not a level playing field, and it is going to be the No. 1 topic at all the coaches meetings because it’s not good.”
Cost of attendance scholarships are calculated on a university level and reported to the federal government. According to Brad Wolverton of the Chronicle of Higher Education, COA scholarship amounts vary from less than $2,000 (Georgia Tech) to more than $5,000 (Auburn). For what it’s worth, Clemson ($3,608), South Carolina ($4,151) and Florida State ($3,884) plan to offer similar amounts.
Swinney went on to say that he’s not against athletes receiving benefits beyond the traditional scholarship, but he is wary of players receiving different amounts at different schools. “Again, we’ve got to figure out a better way to execute it,” he said. “As far as professionalizing (college sports,) that makes no sense to me because these guys are really getting an awful lot that people don’t want to talk about, and for some reason they don’t want to put a value on that.”
Swinney wasn’t alone. Said Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer: “The way we’ve done it, where there could be tremendous difference in what we give as opposed to another school is able to give, we’ve never done anything like that in college football before.”
One man’s advice to the ACC coaches: welcome to 2015. No matter what the papers say, recruits haven’t viewed scholarship offers from Clemson and Wake Forest on a similar level in decades, and new cost of attendance legislation won’t change that. Then again, this is the same group of people the NCAA tried to unshackle from its New York City phone book-sized rule book back in 2013, and they rejected it. They found comfort in those shackles.
Coaches are like Brooks Hatlen from The Shawshank Redemption, institutionalized to the core.