Cash is now a part of recruiting … legally
By: will-vandervort July 28, 2015

When Dabo Swinney was asked how the cost of attendance might affect recruiting in the future, he responded in a tongue-in-cheek like fashion.

“This is the first time where cash has been a part of recruiting, you know … legally,” the Clemson coach said at last week’s ACC Football Kickoff.

In reality, though, Swinney is being very serious. The money players will be given this fall to help with cost of living expenses will be a game-changer in the world recruiting, and not just in football. It’s another avenue one school can sell that maybe another cannot.

“This is the first time, literally, where you get $6,000 to come here and you get $4,000 to come here, within the rules. That’s the biggest change I have been a part of since I have been in college football in recruiting,” Swinney said.

Starting on Aug. 19, Clemson will give its head-count sports, such as football and men’s basketball, their first of two checks as part of the COA. Clemson will break up $3,906 into two payments which student athletes will receive at the beginning of each semester.

Joe Galbraith, Clemson’s director of Athletic Communications, said in an email to The Clemson Insider on Monday, the personal expenses/transportation expenses of $3,522 is combined with a supply cost of $384 to reach the $3,906 figure Clemson will give student athletes in its head count sports.

“We are well positioned in that,” Swinney said. “If you look across the board, we are not the highest, but we are certainly not the lowest.”

Clemson actually ranks ninth among ACC and SEC schools. The COA Clemson will give, according to a story published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 9, is $1,760 less than what Tennessee will give its student athletes and $2,506 more than what Boston College will give.

“I think it is a great thing for our players and is a really good step in the right direction,” Swinney said. “It kind of modernized the scholarship if you will and kind of bridges that gap, but I think there are some problems with it, and as we get into it those things it will become more evident, and hopefully we will get to a different spot somewhere down the road.

“Right now that is where it is.”

Right now it is a recruiting advantage for a school like Clemson, and a disadvantage for schools like Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Boston College, which rank 26-29 on the list of ACC and SEC schools.

Most ACC schools are also looking up at their big brothers from the SEC. Kentucky represents the lowest ranked SEC school at No. 23 ($2,284). Clemson, which will give its players the second highest amount in the ACC, has seven SEC teams ranked ahead of it, including archrival South Carolina, who comes in at No. 7 on the list at $4,151.

Only three ACC schools rank in top 10 on this list (Louisville No. 4, Clemson No. 9, Florida State No. 10) while just five rank in the top 15 (Pitt No. 13, Miami No. 15).

“I understand the concerns, and I think any time you take a step like we have taken, you’re going to have some discomfort,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford said. “And I think we’re going to need to live with this for a couple of years before we truly see whether those differences impact the decisions that recruits are making.

“In a perfect world, would that number be the same? Probably, but we don’t live in a perfect world and I think we know that. And from a legal standpoint, that cannot exist at the moment.”

The COA is not something a school or conference can go and change whenever it wants to do it. The Federal Government is involved and there are anti-trust laws that must be obeyed. In other words, a conference just can’t get together and set its own parameters and tell its member institutions they have to all pay the same amount.

Still, Alabama just reported a 34-percent increase in its cost of attendance figure from two years ago for out-of-state students and a 14-percent increase for in-state students. CBS Sports College Football Writer John Solomon reported over the weekend, Alabama will pay its out-of-state student athletes $5,386 and its in-state athletes $4,172. That ranks Alabama No. 3 among ACC and SEC teams for out-of-state players and No. 7 for in-state.

“There is a formula and not a lot of people understand it,” said Swinney.

Unfortunately, when it comes to recruiting, it is a formula that is allowing some schools to give in some cases, $2,000-$4,200 more than a school it is recruiting against.

“Sometimes you need to do the right thing even though you know it has a few warts, and I think this is the right thing to do,” Swofford said. “I think we have taken the right step that is entirely appropriate and I think we took it with eyes open, understanding that it wasn’t perfect. And we’ll see.

“But I think it’s the right thing to do, even with the concerns about the differentials that are there. You don’t want good to be – you don’t want perfect – you don’t want good to be the enemy of perfect. And this was the right thing to do.”

COA list of ACC and SEC Schools

Team                     COA $

  1. Tennessee $5,666
  2. Auburn $5,586
  3. Alabama $5,386
  4. Louisville $5,202
  5. Miss. State $5, 126
  6. Ole Miss $4,500
  7. S. Carolina $4,151
  8. Arkansas $4,002
  9. Clemson $3,906
  10. FSU $3,884
  11. Missouri $3,664
  12. Florida $3,320
  13. Pitt $3,300
  14. LSU $3,096
  15. Miami $2,780
  16. Vanderbilt $2,780
  17. Virginia Tech $2,770
  18. Texas A&M $2,706
  19. Georgia $2,598
  20. Virginia $2,564
  21. NC State $2,430
  22. Wake Forest $2,400
  23. Kentucky $2,284
  24. North Carolina $2,336
  25. Duke $2,206
  26. Notre Dame $1,950
  27. Georgia Tech $1,720
  28. Syracuse $1,632
  29. Boston College $1,400