What it would cost South Carolina to bring all spring seniors back for another year
South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner made one point clear: If a spring senior at USC wants to return for another year, their team will welcome them back. The NCAA granted that year of extra eligibility in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
There are concerns across college sports about the costs and roster mechanics for those teams, which saw much of their seasons come to a halt in mid-March. But speaking with Sports Talk radio on Tuesday night, Tanner said his department has run the numbers on the 45 or so spring sports seniors and what it would cost.
“If every eligible athlete came back, the seniors, it would be like $1,082,000,” Tanner said. “We figured it to the penny.”
The coming months will likely be fraught for athletic departments as the loss of the NCAA basketball tournaments and most spring sports seasons eat into the year-end money distributions schools get from conferences.
Tanner said the loss of spring sports themselves didn’t have a net cost to the school, but that’s before accounting for lost tournament money. He said the goal at the moment is to keep the department in the black at the end of the fiscal year.
After that, attention turns to football, which would have catastrophic financial impacts if the pandemic forced large-scale cancellation. Tanner said folks within the SEC have talked casually about alternatives for the season, but not in-depth on the conference level. He also said if fall sports had to start later, he wouldn’t see it as that catastrophic and guessed the timeline between getting players conditioning and starting the season might be a little less than the eight weeks Will Muschamp suggested.
But there’s a while between now and then and a lot of things to sort though, in the world at large and then in athletics.
At the moment, spring coaches are speaking with athletes, figuring out who had plans to move on, who might want to adjust those. Chances are high the athletes representing that $1.082 million figure won’t all be in garnet next spring.
“Not all of them will come back because some will graduate. Some will move on. Some will get a chance professionally. I’ve talked to a couple of students that are going to grad school at other places. So that number won’t be that high.
“But still, the opportunity is there for those young men and young women to have a senior season.”
The full list of spring sports seniors at South Carolina:
BASEBALL (4)
Bryant Bowen, graduate transfer, catcher/infield
Dallas Beaver, graduate transfer, catcher/infield
Graham Lawson, redshirt senior, relief pitcher
George Callil, senior, shortstop
MEN’S GOLF (2)
Caleb Proveaux, senior
Jamie Wilson, senior
MEN’S TENNIS (1)
Paul Jubb, senior
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD (6)
Arinze Chance, senior, sprints
Darrell Singleton Jr., senior, sprints
Noah Walker, senior, sprints/hurdles
Eric Favors, redshirt senior, throws
Quincy Hall, senior, sprints/hurdles
Malik Paul, senior, throws
WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD (8)
Jhari Williams, senior, sprints/jumps
Anna Kathryn Stoddard, senior, distance
Sarah-Sims McGrath, senior, distance
Morgan Lee, senior, distance
Kelsey Larkin, senior, middle distance
Leah Ford, senior, distance
Hanifah Abdulqadir, senior, jumps
Hailey Sweatman, senior, pole vault
BEACH VOLLEYBALL (7)
Madison Brabham, graduate
Morgyn Greer, graduate
Sarah Nacouzi, senior
Carly Schnieder, senior
Franky Harrison, senior
Hannah Edelman, senior
Katie Smith, senior
EQUESTRIAN (8)
Quinn Brandt, redshirt senior, horsemanship
Caroline Gute, senior, horsemanship & reining
Madelynne Herlocker, senior\u0009
Bailey Imbus, senior, flat and fences
Maddy Parker, senior flat and fences
Jordan Scott, senior, reining\u0009
Madison Sellman, senior, flat and fences
Farley Wickre, senior, reining
WOMEN’S GOLF (3)
Lois Kaye Go, senior
Ana Pelaez, senior
Anita Uwadia, senior
SOFTBALL (4)
Lauren Stewart, redshirt senior, outfielder
Kenzi Maguire, redshirt senior, infielder
Mackenzie Boesel, senior, infielder
Cayla Drotar, senior, pitcher/designated player
WOMEN’S TENNIS (2)
Silvia Chinellato, senior
Mia Horvit, senior
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
