USC four year scholarship

[ACamp1900]

4-Year Scholarships for Revenue Sports - USC Trojans

Thought this was interesting, my initial reaction was good for them...

 

[Cackalacky]

Yep. Good call. I think this has a lot to do with the union thing. USC, ND and only a few other private schools could actually pay their athletes. This probably heads that off and makes USC competitive with ND. I think it's a great policy that more schools have.

 

[IrishLax]

I love that they pompously say they're leading the way in student welfare when:
1. Dozens of schools already offer 4-year scholarships.
2. They have a 49% African American graduation rate.

 

[BeauBenken]

I love that they pompously say they're leading the way in student welfare when:
1. Dozens of schools already offer 4-year scholarships.
2. They have a 49% African American graduation rate.

"In taking this action, USC hopes to help lead the effort to refocus on student-athlete welfare on and off the field."

That doesn't sound too bad to me, Lax. When someone says they hope to help, it implies to me that they acknowledge they aren't the ones who started this, but they would like to be part of the positive change.

I'm not entirely sure what schools actually offer 4-year scholarships, but I know USC is a school amongst the football elite who (to my knowledge) for the most part don't do that. What schools outside of ND that are historically elite programs do that?

 

[IrishLax]

"In taking this action, USC hopes to help lead the effort to refocus on student-athlete welfare on and off the field."

That doesn't sound too bad to me, Lax.

I'm not entirely sure what schools actually offer 4-year scholarships, but I know USC is a school amongst the football elite who (to my knowledge) for the most part don't do that. What schools outside of ND that are historically elite programs do that?

The entire Big Ten (I think), Stanford, etc. It's been going on basically forever and explicitly written into offer letters for years by many schools. They're not "leading" the charge on anything, they're following the lead of many other schools.

They care about the PR, which is what they are undeservedly getting for this change. Less than a 50% grad rate for AAs tells you all you need to know about how much they actually care about the welfare of their slaves... I mean... "student athletes."

This is the title of most of their social media campaign on this:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Leading the way in student-athlete welfare, USC will now offer 4-year athletic scholarships in the revenue sports. <a href="http://t.co/jc5eQlrMw3">http://t.co/jc5eQlrMw3</a></p>— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/USC_Athletics/statuses/481113555056328705">June 23, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Sure, Haden says "help to lead" and honestly I appreciate them taking a step in the right direction... but most schools outside of the SEC already do this, and USC is late to the party yet grandstanding about this policy change. Every other school that has put this in hasn't seen the need to toot their own horn over it and make a big deal, because following common sense and basic human decency isn't the kind of thing most places deem press release/curtain call worthy.

When they start graduating a reasonable amount of their players, then I'm willing to listen to what they have to say about the "welfare" of student athletes. Right now, USC is part of the problem and not the solution. So they should shut up and sit down.

 

[Irishbounty28]

The entire Big Ten (I think), Stanford, etc. It's been going on basically forever and explicitly written into offer letters for years by many schools. They're not "leading" the charge on anything, they're following the lead of many other schools.

They care about the PR, which is what they are undeservedly getting for this change. Less than a 50% grad rate for AAs tells you all you need to know about how much they actually care about the welfare of their slaves... I mean... "student athletes."

I don't think it is all of the Big Ten but most of them. Here is a link.

Some in Big Ten offering 4-year scholarships - ESPN

When this article was written in 2012, Purdue, Indiana and Minnesota were all still renewable scholarships. That means even Ohio State offers four year scholarships before USC. Ouch.

 

[IrishLax]

I don't think it is all of the Big Ten but most of them. Here is a link.

Some in Big Ten offering 4-year scholarships - ESPN

When this article was written in 2012, Purdue, Indiana and Minnesota were all still renewable scholarships. That means even Ohio State offers four year scholarships before USC. Ouch.

Yup. I know for a fact I've seen it from Michigan and Ohio State, and I think all of the schools do it now. Thanks for linking.

 

[BeauBenken]

The entire Big Ten (I think), Stanford, etc. It's been going on basically forever and explicitly written into offer letters for years by many schools. They're not "leading" the charge on anything, they're following the lead of many other schools.

They care about the PR, which is what they are undeservedly getting for this change. Less than a 50% grad rate for AAs tells you all you need to know about how much they actually care about the welfare of their slaves... I mean... "student athletes."

This is the title of most of their social media campaign on this:
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<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sure, Haden says "help to lead" and honestly I appreciate them taking a step in the right direction... but most schools outside of the SEC already do this, and USC is late to the party yet grandstanding about this policy change. Every other school that has put this in hasn't seen the need to toot their own horn over it and make a big deal, because following common sense and basic human decency isn't the kind of thing most places deem press release/curtain call worthy.

Didn't realize so many Big Ten schools do this. That's good to hear. Your "dozens" statement doesn't seem so far off now. Thanks for that info (you're included in this irishbounty).

Of course they are going to PR the hell out of it despite like you've said, they aren't all too serious about players actually graduating. That's what schools like USC do. I see your point now that they aren't even close to really "leading the way" like the tweet suggests. I was simply going off the Haden quote.

To me USC is essentially a west coast SEC school so I consider it a big deal for them to change this policy, and because I see them as such is why I think that they ARE kinda helping lead the way. I think if USC can do it so can Bama and the like.

Hell this PR that we hate may actually be beneficial. If people start wondering if their school provides 4-years vs 1-year renewables and recruits/parents actually start to care, then perhaps the SEC will be forced to change their ways too. (I know, I know.)
<iframe style="display: none;" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" id="rufous-sandbox" frameborder="0"></iframe>

 

[IrishLax]

Didn't realize so many Big Ten schools do this. That's good to hear. Your "dozens" statement doesn't seem so far off now. Thanks for that info (you're included in this irishbounty).

Of course they are going to PR the hell out of it despite like you've said, they aren't all too serious about players actually graduating. That's what schools like USC do. I see your point now that they aren't even close to really "leading the way" like the tweet suggests. I was simply going off the Haden quote.

To me USC is essentially a west coast SEC school so I consider it a big deal for them to change this policy, and because I see them as such is why I think that they ARE kinda helping lead the way. I think if USC can do it so can Bama and the like.

Hell this PR that we hate may actually be beneficial. If people start wondering if their school provides 4-years vs 1-year renewables and recruits/parents actually start to care, then perhaps the SEC will be forced to change their ways too. (I know, I know.)
<iframe style="display: none;" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" id="rufous-sandbox" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Salient point. Hadn't even really considered that just by bringing this to the forefront how they are it potentially forces other schools to address it because recruits might start asking questions.

 

[PLACforever]

I wish the official ND Twitter would reply with, Leading the way in student athlete welfare, Notre Dame has been offering 4 year scholarships since 19XX."

 

[Corry]

Salient point. Hadn't even really considered that just by bringing this to the forefront how they are it potentially forces other schools to address it because recruits might start asking questions.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who had to google salient.

#500SATverbal

 

[Old Man Mike]

I say give Pat Haden his props. I never thought of him as a bad guy. It takes time to try to clean the Augean Stables and he seems to be playing politics where he can, but slowly getting there. I think that he has two strikes against him, psychologically, when it comes to IE: he's USC [nothing he can do about that], and it took him too long to shake his subconscious biases out of his blurt-mouth when he was "our" announcer --- still he managed the latter ultimately and became twice as listenable as the other clown.

Still, thank God for Mike Mayock.

 

[Cackalacky]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who had to google salient.

#500SATverbal

At least you are not insouciant in your reading and comprehension.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

All this means is they will have to come up with more creative ways to dismiss underperforming players.

 

[WestCoast]

4-Year Scholarships for Revenue Sports - USC Trojans

Thought this was interesting, my initial reaction was good for them...

I think the biggest impact of this is the PR angle. As long as I've been following USC recruiting, I'm not aware of them pulling a scholarship of an academically eligible scholarship player in order to make room for a big incoming class. (I believe there was one walk-on awarded a scholarship that Kiffen may have taken away while they were under "snactions", but other than that I don't recall others.)

In other words, they've honored their scholarships as 4-years even though they technically they were only 1 year. So as others mentioned, it becomes a talking point to sell to the uninformed intended to set them apart from other football factories.

One final thought.

Are you some kind of newbie?
l
l
l
V

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Leading the way in student-athlete welfare, USC will now offer 4-year athletic scholarships in the revenue sports. <a href="http://t.co/jc5eQlrMw3">http://t.co/jc5eQlrMw3</a></p>— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/USC_Athletics/statuses/481113555056328705">June 23, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Fashionably late as usual.

 

[ResLife Hero]

The trend continues. Wonder if this will become a common practice without an NCAA mandate or if the NCAA will get involved (and likely handle it incredibly stupidly).

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>TCU could be the next to begin offering four-year scholarships: <a href="http://t.co/FFxpwGy9dH">http://t.co/FFxpwGy9dH</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/FrogsOWar">@FrogsOWar</a></p>— SB✯Nation CFB (@SBNationCFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/SBNationCFB/statuses/487973445196460034">July 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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