Steve Spurrier gets last laugh on his 2011 proposal to pay players

Steve Spurrier was ahead of his time during his coaching career. He revolutionized the SEC with his “Fun n’ Gun” offense, which featured an aggressive vertical passing attack in a ground-and-pound league. His memorable one-liners and digs at rivals were unparalleled. And 14 years before college athletes started getting a piece of the pie this July, Spurrier was calling for it to happen.

His proposal to pay players back in 2011 didn’t receive much support beyond fellow SEC coaches, but Spurrier was a trailblazer on a topic that seemed taboo at the time. Instead of schools giving athletes a share of its revenue, which is happening now, his plan was for SEC coaches to open their own pockets.

Spurrier recalled his proposal during the 1010XL roundtable on Tuesday.

“I remember one of our commissioners said, ‘They’ll never do that.’ I said, ‘Yeah they will!’ Money’s coming,” he recalled. “You can’t just give it all to the coaches.”

Spurrier got the last laugh House v. NCAA ruling this year. Starting July 1, schools are able to share $20.5 million with student-athletes. Spurrier’s proposal was much cheaper and only for football: $21,000 per game split amongst 70 players.

Spurrier first pitched the idea of giving 70 players $300 a game, and his proposal was signed by six other SEC coaches including Alabama’s Nick Saban, Florida’s Will Muschamp and Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen.

“A bunch of us coaches felt so strongly about it that we would be willing to pay it … That’s only $21,000 a game,” Spurrier said in 2011. “I just wish there was a way to give our players a piece of the pie. “

Spurrier doubled down the following year and proposed providing football players with $3,500 to $4,000 a year. This time, all 14 SEC coaches agreed with his idea.

“We think they need more and deserve more. It’s as simple as that,” Spurrier said in 2012. “Again, we as coaches would be willing to pay it if they were to approve it to where our guys could get approximately get three-, four-thousand bucks a year.

“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 was right about those billions; now athletes are receiving a portion of that revenue. And they’re getting paid much more than what he was offering 14 years ago.

“My suggestion was $300 to $500 a game, which is better than zero. Everybody was getting zero,” Spurrier said on the 1010XL roundtable Tuesday. “Five hundred bucks a game, they could pay for their parents to come, motel room, go out to dinner with your parents, girlfriends or whatever.”