How can so many of the best football coaches in the SEC be so obtuse when it comes to paying a stipend to their student athletes? South Carolina's Steve Spurrier revealed a plan, signed by six other coaches from his conference, including Alabama's Nick Saban, LSU's Les Miles and Old Miss' Houston Nutt, that called for up to 70 players to be paid $300 per game, out of the coaches pocket. That comes to $21,000 a game and somewhat over quarter of a million dollars for the season.
Now, boys, how in the world is that going to fly through Title IX? You tell me the courts, so vigilant in their protection of gender equity, are going to allow football players to make thousands of dollars a year and not the women's basketball players and women's soccer players and women's ice hockey players and field hockey players and volleyball players?
We haven't even mention all the other men's teams that have to get paid, or gotten into the question of where's the money going to come to play the non-revenue generating sports? By the time they pay the student-athletes, coaches effectively will be working for free.
Before you do any of the math, just accept the fact that sports departments across America would be going broke if the plan of Spurrier and a few good old boys from the SEC, was ratified.
Maybe Spurrier is actually so much of relic that he can't grasp the little matter called gender equity, or maybe he's just doing it to draw attention. Either way, his suggestion is dumb and his college president should have enlightened him within minutes of his grand plan.