The media and fans are loving this episode between the university and Spurrier. ESPN and most sports sites have covered this ongoing dilemma of ‘athletes vs academics’. You may remember Tommy Bowden faced this same issue a while back but it did not get the media attention that Spurrier has. Fans are calling for the firing of “Mr. Bowtie,” otherwise known as Andrew Sorenson. But I feel Sorenson and Spurrier will work this out. There is always a rift among academia and big time college sports; this is just the latest headline that will pass in time but changes need to be made.
This morning there was a article (HERE) with the USC Trustees weighing in and there is a news report from the Gville News today that goes into detail on this subject and you can read it HERE. It discusses “special admits” and the number of them allowed in.
Here is the jist of the article –
“While coach Steve Spurrier has complained about the process, the University of South Carolina’s special admissions committee has given the football coach’s recruits a lot of consideration and approved a large number of them in his three years at the school.
Spurrier’s first three recruiting classes include 63 special admits — 84 percent of the players admitted — according to figures supplied by the athletic department. NCAA rules allow Division I programs to bring in 25 players each year. Spurrier’s first class featured 23 special admits. There were 22 in 2006-07 and 18 in 2007-08. The latter number could go up if any players enroll in January.”
“Special admits are students not accepted under the regular admission guidelines but who possess “a special performance talent” in athletics as well as music or dance.”
Thoughts?
