Steve Spurrier

I know this is a baseball forum but did anyone catch Steve Spurrier's bash of South Carolina??

As a coach and former collegiate athlete I was quite perturbed by what Spurrier said. Basically, what happened was 2 recruits were given scholarships because they met NCAA standards for being eligibility but did not get accepted to USC because USC has higher standards for admittance than the NCAA. He bashed administration for this. (I find it hard to believe that USC is that hard to get into first of all) Spurrier went on to say that it is not fair for an athlete who is pursued by a school to be held to "regular" student academic standards. He went on to say that the school did not expect a computer geek to squat 600 Ibs so why should an athlete be expected to make high class marks. He also stated something to the effect that athletics were the main reason they were going college not academics. However, that maybe true but the university can't treat athletes different to that level. As an athlete, I know that there were some special privileges or whatever you want to call them when it came to academics for us as far as timetable for work due and free tutors but this is a whole other level.

I geuss Coach Spurrier thinks that every collegiate athlete makes millions of dollars in professional sports and does not need to get an education. My former roommate in college is really ticked off. He was a football player who had an opportunity to be drafted but a late season injury in his senior season killed that and he is know a biochemical engineer with his PhD in Biogenetics or something like that!

In my opinion, Spurrier slapped every person in the face who is involved with athletics, especially the athletes! I geuss we are going to have to dumb jocks again!

I would greatly appreciate some feedback on my rant!

 

I didn't think it was all that bad.....

 

I read it. He recruited too many kids and had to cut a kid loose. Michael Bowman takes the loss for his mistake.

 

I guess the ol Ballcoach should be put in charge down there. Maybe he could make SC a college the football team could be proud of in a couple years time.

 

Big time college football programs make millions off of their football teams. Recruiting kids and admitting them to the school benefits the school. I think that Spurrier is right. The whole "college is an academic institution" argument is completely flawed and this is why: Division 1 colleges spend an average of 27 million dollars a year on their athletics programs, and you have to figure that AT LEAST half of that is on football. Lets face it, Big time college football is a BUSINESS. For USC to not admit players that could be admitted is terrible for the school. Oh, by the way, Stever Spurrier makes about 1.25 million bucks a year.....show me a professor that is making that much money if college is supposed to be an "academic institution".

 

While I agree with most of what you have said, there is more to this. This kid was dropped because Spurrier offered too many scholarships. SC expected to lose more through attrition, ie. transfers, grade issues. They didn't lose what they thought they were going to and they had to pull a kids scholarship. SC realized they had a PR problem so they had Spurrier bring the issue out in the open. I don't have a problem with SC not admiting Michael Bowman. Just tell him before signing day so the kid can sign with someone else. Now the kid has little to choose from at this late notice.

NCAA and universities have a projected academic performance for kids. Universities are concerned about kids that project poorly. Bowman projected poorly so he becomes expendable. I work on this for a ACC school and volunteer at the ACC office. I've seen it.

 

why bother.....

I don't disagree with anyone's asessment here, but why even call them student/athletes if that is the case. 99% of these "student/athletes will rely more on the student part of their education than the athlete part.

Does Prop 48 exist anymore?

 

I agree. Spurrier is only asking his university to allow him to recruit players who can get in at most of his public school SEC rivals. I was at Duke when he coached and knew many players who played for him. He was not anti-academic, but now at SC he is paid to win. This news about the kids being denied admission comes way too late in the process, a process which seems flawed.

 

Prop 48 still exists. Although some schools can still accept a partial qualifier and some cannot. The rise of Louisville football has been aided by partial qualifiers. ECU accepts partial qualifiers. Recent example - Rodney Cox, QB from Harnet Central.

 

You're wrong. Spurrier PUBLICLY stated we were going to Gray Shirt 3+ kids this year. They would practice in the Summer, but couldn't re-enroll until January 2008. All major schools do this. Ryan Broadhead did that this year for the numbers to work.

Michael Bowman was in...but apparently his grades slid last semester putting him under the USC admission line. Same for Arkee Smith out of First Coast, Florida. As things stand, USC has 84 kids on scholarship. In other words, we have one that isn't being used.