At a time when allegations of improper benefits have taken down one of college football's most respected coaches in Jim Tressel, you'd think other Leaders of Men wouldn't be so eager to admit to thinking about committing violations. But Steve Spurrier has never been like most coaches.
According to Matt Hayes of the Sporting News, Spurrier says he and six other coaches in the SEC have discussed a plan to pay players $300 per game out of their own pockets.
Spurrier says he's gotten support from Alabama's Nick Saban, LSU's Les Miles, Florida's Will Muschamp, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, Ole Miss' Houston Nutt and Tennessee's Derek Dooley. He also said that he was willing to narc on coaches who weren't down with the plan.
Not sure if Spurrier has gotten the memo, but paying players is against the rules. If you believe him, his intentions are good. He tells Hayes that he's looking for a "way of giving the players a piece of the pie." Even if South Park has started taking aim at the hypocrisy of the NCAA, this certainly isn't the way to do it.
Aside from the obvious violations of the NCAA's amateurism rules (stop laughing), there are major issues with giving SEC schools a huge advantage in recruiting. That advantage would be polarizing even within the conference. Coaches like Spurrier, Saban and Miles command enough of a salary that they can afford to dish out an allowance to their players. It's hard to imagine that every coach in the conference could do the same.
There's also the issue of Title IX. If football players are going to start receiving a little extra something, you can bet that a lawsuit will be filed immediately on behalf of female athletes in the name of fairness.
Even before contemplating those issues, it's curious why Spurrier would take this moment to bring up such a topic. The NCAA has its antennae up and is sure to give it some attention. Then again, Spurrier has always been pretty good at using the media to get his point out, so there very well could be a method in his madness.
I work with TSYS Prepiaid and we provide Universities with athletic per diem prepaid cards. They are a great product the athlete to monitor transactions and amount loads to help report back to NCAA. Universities or coaches are able to load the cards for traveling games and could be a great use for addtional funds as NCAA allows it to happen. If any coach reading this is looking for athlete per diem prepaid cards, then contact me for more details.
ReplyDeleteWade Speelman
D: 4026024052
wspeelman@tsys.com
I find it absurd to pay players. Over and above the benefit of free schooling, imagine what it would cost a player for the 4 years (or more) of coaching? The four years of strength training and the facilities to do so? Four years at the training table?
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who is training for a triathlon. He pays well over $500 a month for a coach. This is strictly coaching costs. If training equipment is needed, my friend buys it. Special diet? Additional cost. Point is, the coaching, strength training, meals, training supplements,and facilities are worth 10s of thousand of dollars a year if not more. Pay them cash too? Get real. These players don't know how good they have it. Those not good enough for the Pros will find out soon.
As a former college athlete, I think this is a great idea. The players generate a tremendous amount of revenue for many of the major college programs. Especially those in conferences like the SEC, Big Ten, Pac 12, Big East and ACC. Many of the players, especially football and basketball, come from poor families and thus don't receive the type of financial support from their families that many college students receive. Students can not live on food, school, and sports alone. Also they don't have time to work, as their "job" is the sport they participate in.
ReplyDeleteSo the players with be employees of the coaches, is that not correct? Maybe Mr. Spurrier has forgotten these kids already draw a salary in the way of an education. CHRIS who says he's a former college athlete, needs to remember just as much as poor kids don't get the same support from their families, so also will the same occur with schools who have less of a budget and coaches who already deal with athletic parity may not have the funds to pay kids to play. We then would have to deal with the boosters all over again who engage kids with other sordid activities. Regardless, the simple fact is; that this just opens a can of worms that doesn't need to be opened. If it happens, I cringe at the fallout to come.
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