Pastides, Spurrier weigh in on new rules with differing opinions
The NCAA's executive committee voted Thursday to allow universities to provide up to $2,000 to student-athletes in the form of a cost of living stipend increase, and USC President Harris Pastides, the Southeastern Conference's representative on the 18-member executive committee, quickly said USC would give its athletes more. Schools can also now offer scholarships for multiple years instead of the traditional one-year scholarship, according to the changes passed.
"Given all the money that's being spent on facilities and coaches, it's a good thing to remember the student," Pastides said.
But South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who has been vocal in recent months about greater financial support for student-athletes and the debate surrounding scholarship terms, said he doesn't agree with either of the reforms.
Spurrier said the new stipends, which fall short of the suggested $3,222 expense figure cited in a joint report by the National College Players Association and Drexel University released in September, aren't fair to basketball and football players who are responsible for the vast majority of collegiate athletic revenue.
"They're the guys that bring in all the dough. They should get more, in my opinion," Spurrier said. "But that's just my opinion. They won't agree with me, so that's OK."
But Pastides quickly batted down that idea.
"If you start providing money that is more than the cost of attending college, you're beginning to treat them like professional players," Pastides said. "I would be against that."
Spurrier said Thursday that he would also like to see any stipends not just restricted to scholarship athletes, but instead "I wish they'd sort of tell the coach he can give the dough to the most productive people," including walk-on players.
"I really think some walk-on kids deserve some money instead of the scholarship ones," Spurrier said. "But sometimes that's just rub of the green, that you gave scholarships to guys that are not as good as your walk-on players."
In June at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla., Spurrier proposed that coaches pay players $300 a game out of their salaries. The suggestion was seen as symbolic and declared unfeasible by many but served as a launching point of sorts for a national debate on the subject.
The new legislation allowing schools to offer four-year athletic scholarships will eventually cut back on the number of scholarships given in football, Spurrier said.
"I told our guys we'll probably try to sign 75 instead of 85, and then have some to give to walk-ons that really earn it and kids that you want to have here for three years," Spurrier said. "Sometimes you give one to a guy that, 'Well, we'll give him a shot, see if he makes it,' and then he turns out he doesn't want to play football. He just wants to be on scholarship. I don't know how you get rid of those guys under the new rules they're proposing."
A scholarship is equivalent to having a job, Spurrier said. An individual must produce in order to keep their job; hence a student-athlete should have to produce in order to stay on scholarship.
"I just believe you've got to earn your way in life, and they think as soon as you sign a kid, you owe him four years," Spurrier said. "I don't look at it that way. When you sign up for a job in life, very few times do you get guaranteed four years."
Pastides said he wasn't sure if USC would change its scholarship policies.
"But sometimes there are injuries, sometimes it doesn't work out for the team," Pastides said. "It's important for each university to examine its own policies and make a good decision in that regard."
Some believe schools with lesser resources may offer four-year scholarships as a way of competing more directly for elite prospects. While the six major conferences should almost immediately pass resolutions allowing for the stipends, smaller leagues may struggle to do so and offer greater scholarship security in order to compensate. Spurrier said he thinks the new rules will have a direct effect on the way coaches evaluate talent and offer scholarships to prospective student-athletes.
"You better make sure he's a ballplayer," Spurrier said. "Just don't take a chance that he may develop. Let's make sure he's a good high school player before we say, 'Well, we think he may get bigger and stronger.' And you need to check their backgrounds better too."
Spurrier said he doesn't expect the NCAA to agree with him. Nor does he expect his opinions to become actual law. To steal one of Spurrier's oft-used phrases, the situation is what it is.
"They make the rules, so we'll abide by whatever they say," Spurrier said.