USC announced Monday that it would begin offering four-year athletic scholarships to all scholarship student-athletes in football and men’s and women’s basketball effective July 1.
This decision counters the usual one-year renewable scholarships offered by most programs to student-athletes. It gives a player a guaranteed four-year scholarship, eliminating the possibility of a scholarship not being renewed at the end of a season.
USC athletic director Pat Haden said this policy will be implemented for all current student-athletes and future student-athletes in those three sports.
“In taking this action, USC hopes to help lead the effort to refocus on student-athlete welfare on and off the field,” Haden said in a USC release.
In the release, Haden also said the university will continue to “assist scholarship student-athletes in good academic standing that have exhausted their intercollegiate eligibility to obtain their undergraduate degrees.”
Since early 2012, schools at the Division I level have had the option to offer guaranteed scholarships that last more than one year.
In August, the 65 schools in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC will vote on the proposed governance restructuring that includes autonomy for the Power 5 conferences. Autonomy will allow those schools to make rules on “specific matters affecting the interests of student-athletes.” Most notably, this includes providing student-athletes with the full cost of attendance.
For more USC news, visit USCFootball.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
