South Carolina in middle of football's change
When the football team took victory over Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl last season, USC President Harris Pastides, an avid sports fan, was swept up in the moment.
He was caught up in the celebration over the team’s 11th win, a program-high, and he led the fans in Orlando, Fla., in a “Game–Cocks” cheer, admitting later it wasn’t his most presidential moment.
But as the news from State College, Pa., came out in the following months, Pastides said he was swept in the opposite direction. High-ranking Penn State officials had allegedly concealed their knowledge that Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach, was molesting adolescent boys on campus.
Once the “Oh my God” reaction had passed, Pastides said he began thinking introspectively. He asked himself if that situation could have happened at South Carolina. What would have happened if it did happen at USC?
Has the changing culture and landscape of college football made the sport too powerful on a campus? As college football continues to grow and evolve, the Gamecocks find themselves in the middle of one of the sport’s most captivating seasons.
In between realigning conferences, future playoff scenarios and a jaw-dropping scandal at one of the premier institutions, USC is coming off its most successful season ever and is faced with the same question as college football:
Where do you go from here?
“I not only thought of it, but I am concerned that college football can get too big, and that’s why there’s a balance — because I want it to be big,” Pastides said. “The freshmen who are here this year are excited about that first home football game. I don’t want it not to be big.
“My point is, don’t you ever compromise the well-being of one person, whether it’s a student, a visitor to campus or certainly not a child because of your wanting to protect something about the athletics program.”
Pastides said the desire to protect a football team at any cost stems in part from a culture where sport is the “tail that wags the dog.” After some self-described “soul searching,” he said he doesn’t think USC has that culture.
Though the Penn State scandal was horrific, Pastides said lessons can be taken from it. He called it a “shot across the bow” — a warning to universities across the nation to install the necessary changes to prevent something similar from happening there.
Though Penn State caused college football to pause in that regard, the sport moved forward in another, with the approval of a four-team playoff to take affect in 2014 to determine a national champion.
The current Bowl Championship Series uses a voting system that pits the top two teams against each other. While discussion about a playoff has been going on for years, Pastides said hesitation abounded especially in the Southeastern Conference, the home of the last six national champions.
Ultimately, Pastides, as a fan, understood why sports fans wanted to see a system similar to college basketball’s, where a champion isn’t crowned by seemingly arbitrary voting.
“There was always that year when the big championship game wouldn’t satisfy me that the two very best teams were in it,” Pastides said. “It was always, always one of the very best teams, but the other one, I might have felt wasn’t in that game.”
With change, criticism of change naturally follows. Is a four-team playoff enough, or should the change have been more drastic?
“Well, if I were calling the shots, I would have eight teams going to play,” said USC head football coach Steve Spurrier at SEC Media Days.
Pastides has his reservations, though.
“There are a lot of people saying, ‘If it could just be eight teams,’” Pastides said. “I’m concerned about adding games. I’m concerned about playing football deep into the basketball season. I’m concerned about student distraction.”
Along with the coming playoff, this season will mark the first season the SEC has had 14 teams, as Missouri and Texas A&M join. From a player’s perspective, senior defensive lineman Devin Taylor said he doesn’t pay very much attention to changes around the sport.
“You just kind of focus on what we have to do ahead of time right now, as far as preparing for Vanderbilt and everything and getting that rolling,” Taylor said.
As for changes on his own team, Taylor always hears the question about how the Gamecocks will replace former All-American defensive lineman Melvin Ingram. Offensively, the receiving corps has new look without wide receiver Alshon Jeffery.
Change is inevitable for the sport and for the Gamecocks, though some things stay the same. Fans and opponents alike have come to expect classic Spurrier quips about Georgia or how USC’s schedule is unfairly challenging.
Does Pastides still get a laugh out of Spurrier’s one-liners?
“I do,” he said. “We understand each other, and I understand where he’s coming from.”