South Carolina's head football coach Steve Spurrier says he supports the idea of players receiving "full-cost" scholarships.
He said Wednesday that football coaches voted 14-0 to present the proposal to league directors.
"We're trying to get extra money for living expense, academic expense, game-related expense to our players because of the tremendous amount of money-billions-they're bringing" in, Spurrier told CBS Sports.
The plan, which once seemed farfetched, now has NCAA Division I Board Directors working on a proposal that would give scholarship athletes $2,000 toward the full cost of attendance-money that covers expenses beyond tuition, room and board, books and fees.
But Spurrier and others believe $2,000 isn't enough. Spurriers' talking double that; and not just limited to football players-basketball players, too.
"We think they need more and deserve more," Spurrier said. "It's as simple as that."
However, it's not that simple. There are other things to consider, especially when it comes to paying every player on the team equally. Should the all-star players receive more? Is it fair to offer the additional stipend only to student-athletes in revenue-generating sports?
Spurrier said that while coaches' salaries have multiplied consistently in the last 25 years, scholarship athletes haven't benefited from the ever-growing boon.
LSU coach Les Miles agreed.
"We recognize that the income producers are both the football and basketball programs, period," Miles said. "So there's a want to say with this extra income we would like to provide cost of education and cost of expense stipends to those players. We recognize that it's going to be difficult for every team on every campus - volleyball, gymnastics, baseball, etc. - to come up with the same number.
"What we're saying is the revenue-income sports, certainly football, would share the income that's being produced, paying it back to those guys. It would be a difficult task putting it to work, but I think it's something we all want to push forward."
