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COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier was so angry last summer he threatened to quit over the school’s admissions policy that cost him two recruits. His state rival, Clemson’s Tommy Bowden, chose to keep quiet instead of venting about similar admissions denials when two of his prospects couldn’t get in a year ago.

As both programs signed their latest recruiting classes, they were satisfied that administrative changes to school guidelines cleared up past inequities.

“The university’s been very good with us,” Spurrier said Wednesday.

The head ball coach wasn’t so complimentary in August when he detailed the loss of receiver Michael Bowman of Wadesboro, N.C., and safety Arkee Smith of Jacksonville, Fla. The two had been approved by the NCAA’s clearinghouse yet were turned down by South Carolina.

Spurrier had to call each with the news and felt he had lost credibility with future recruits. “I can’t operate like that,” Spurrier said last summer. “I can’t operate misleading young men.”

If things didn’t change, Spurrier continued, “then I have to go somewhere else, because I can’t tell the young man that he’s coming to school here,” then not have him admitted.

At Clemson, Bowden was not allowed to accept letters of intent from runner Jo Jo Cox and receiver Dwight Smith in February 2007 after they were denied admission by the school’s Athletic Advisory Review Committee. “I don’t think it’d be best for me to talk about that at this time,” he said then, a member of the school’s compliance office in attendance as Bowden met with reporters.

It wasn’t long after that Clemson University President James Barker said the school would look into athletic admissions. In April, a committee reviewing the process recommended several changes that Barker incorporated into the policy. Those included not tying admissions to the national letter of intent and letting the athletic review committee use a program’s NCAA graduation success rate and academic progress rate in a sliding scale to determine a student-athlete’s admission.

In his first time under the new guidelines, Bowden and his staff put together what some analysts said was the country’s No. 2 recruiting class.

“I applaud our administration for working out a system that pretty much levels the playing field,” Bowden said Wednesday.

In October, South Carolina officials clarified the policy for those needing special admission from the university president to enroll. It also gave all South Carolina coaches earlier predictions about a prospect’s academic success at the school.

“Admissions has worked well with us,” South Carolina’s football recruiting coordinator David Reaves said. “Not only that, our coaches did a good job evaluating the kids we recruited, academically as well as on the football field.”

“So we’re trying to recruit a little bit better athlete and student,” Reaves said.

Bowman eventually went to East Carolina to play for ex-South Carolina offensive coordinator Skip Holtz. Smith would up at Bethune-Cookman.

As far as Clemson’s lost recruits, Jones signed with North Carolina, but went to Hargrave Military Academy when he could not academically join the Tar Heels. Cox pledged to Marshall after Clemson turned him down, but was not on the Thundering Herd’s 2007 roster.

Spurrier doesn’t expect to call any recruits with bad admissions news this time around. And Bowden thinks Clemson’s policy changes were “awful advantageous” this year.

In addition, Bowden says, those in academics at the school and those in the “athletic arena are relatively happy with where we are.”

© 2008, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.