Gators' Will Muschamp says players need more financial assistance

Add Florida coach Will Muschamp to the list of coaches who believe college football players should receive some type of financial assistance in addition to their scholarships.

Muschamp isn't advocating "pay for play", but said Monday he does believe players need some type of additional financial help.

"I do think there's something to (the argument of) cost of attendance,'' Muschamp said during an appearance on "The Herd" on ESPNU Monday afternoon. "Some of these young men, I don't think people realize where they come from. They can't go home on the weekend. They don't have expenses for bedsheets and toiletries and things when they come to college. And I think that's real. That's real in my world. And I don't think a lot of people understand that.''

Muschamp was asked to give an example of what he's encountered on the recruiting trail that would make fans understand the magnitude of the difficulties of some players' backgrounds.

"I'm talking homeless,'' Muschamp said. "I've been in situations where young men have been taken in by (other) families. They don't have anything of their own. They don't have a house, they don't have an apartment, they don't have a phone. And you can never get ahold of them. It's serious. I've recruited several and a lot of coaches will tell you the same thing. You don't realize how these guys have been successful. And again, I'm all about opportunities for young men. And giving them an opportunity with a scholarship, that's great. But I do agree there needs to be some sort of cost of attendance so we can help these young people.'

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier in June suggested having coaches pay players a stipend from their salaries to help football and basketball players, because those are the revenue-producing sports in big-time college athletics.

"If there's a way to give our guys a little bit of spending money that's what I was certainly for,'' Spurrier said last week at SEC Media Days. "Just the enormous amount of money that comes in from college football, our players need to share in it a little bit, not a lot. I'm not trying to pay them to play. If we paid them for their performance, we'd have guys making a million dollars a year.''

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