Guaranteed 4-Year Scholarships at South Carolina

[DoubleJayAlum]

But, what athlete getting cut would want to stay at that school, instead of transferring to another school, where they would play?

This strikes me as (probably) a non-issue. It guarantees that if an athlete is "cut", they can stay at the school that cut them to finish their education. There may be some who choose to do that, but those will be the ones who just want to quit sports. It seems unlikely to affect a significant number of athletes.

It seems that recruits who are concerned about getting cut will not be highly recruited athletes. Highly recruited guys have no fear that they could ever be cut. If they have that fear, it will negatively affect their recruiting.

This is a nice headline, but it's going to be relatively insignificant.

I wonder how this would work in a situation like Johnny Coy's. If you are recruited for one sport and the coach cuts you, but you go on and play another sport, how is the scholarship counted? It is especially confusing if a kid goes to a sport that does not have a full allotment of scholarships, like baseball. In Coy's situation would basketball still be out the scholarship? Is baseball charged with a full scholarship since he would have a guaranteed scholarship based on initial recruitment? Is a kid barred from playing a different sport if cut from the primary sport? The latter seems pretty unlikely in the current political environment...

[WSUwatcher]

Not a very accurate description of what happened with Coy, who was a transfer for baseball from Arizona State, but nevertheless a good question about two sport athletes, especially those who compete in one headcount sport and one equivalency sport (e.g., baseball plus football or basketball, like Kenny Lofton used to, or Jameis Winston does now when he isn't in court or serving a suspension).

[Kung Wu]

I wonder how this would work in a situation like Johnny Coy's. If you are recruited for one sport and the coach cuts you, but you go on and play another sport, how is the scholarship counted? It is especially confusing if a kid goes to a sport that does not have a full allotment of scholarships, like baseball. In Coy's situation would basketball still be out the scholarship? Is baseball charged with a full scholarship since he would have a guaranteed scholarship based on initial recruitment? Is a kid barred from playing a different sport if cut from the primary sport? The latter seems pretty unlikely in the current political environment...

My best guess:

1) If he quits the basketball team he loses the guaranteed 4 year scholarship. But when he plays another sport becomes eligible for whatever that sport offers if that coach chooses to give him a scholarship (if an equivalency sport he's only eligible for the one year-at-a-time scholarship currently).

2) But if he makes the basketball team and is "cut" after a season, then he gets the four year scholarship but it's no longer an athletic scholarship -- at that point it's academic. If he is good enough to play for a different equivalency sport, he would lose the 4 year academic scholarship (unless his grades meet the stringent requirements of athletes with full academic scholarships). He would have to lose that scholarship in order to qualify to play the equivalency sport, per NCAA rules. But he would then be eligible for whatever the coach wants to make available to him in the equivalency sport (which could be nothing). So my take is he would have to make a decision to get an education at no cost, or take the riskier road of playing an alternative sport.