Little room for errors by players off the field

HOOVER, Ala. - Steve Spurrier rattled off the usual measures of success aside from wins and losses.

The South Carolina coach cited the graduation rate for the Gamecocks, followed it up with grade point averages and also praised the staff and boosters for helping upgrade the facilities.

Then not-so-subtly and perhaps only half-kidding, Spurrier dropped a new statistic that's helping distinguish schools at SEC football media days. While talk of agents picking up players has dominated the conversation so far this week, on Thursday Spurrier offered a reminder that squad cars picking them up has been a pressing concern for the league lately as well.

"I don't think we've had but one player arrested in about two years, and those charges were dropped," Spurrier said. "That's pretty good nowadays, as we know."

Certainly Tennessee would take numbers like that, as would Georgia, Florida and perhaps a couple other schools in the most powerful league in the country on the field. And though off-the-field problems aren't unique to the SEC, there are few places where bar brawls or DUIs attract nearly as much attention.

That's partially a product of the lucrative media deals that shine such a bright spotlight on the conference all year long, but Spurrier indicated it might also be a reflection of a different age.

"I think they are more common now because players are getting arrested for everything that in the old days they did not get arrested for," he said. "I can sort of remember back in our day, if you were out and something happened, they would say, 'Can you get home? We'll drive you home,' to some of my teammates. They did not go into the tank that night.

"But nowadays, as we all know, you go straight to jail if you've broken the law. There's no room for error. Times are a little different now than they were 25, 30 years ago."

But just like dealing with agents and runners on campus, finding a way to deal with that issue isn't exactly easy.

Coaches have taken away playing time, given suspensions, ordered extra conditioning and, like Vols coach Derek Dooley has already done once since he was hired in January, dismissed players for violating team rules and breaking the law.

But that hasn't kept them all off the police blotter, and though players with arrest records represent a small fraction of the total number of athletes in the league, the bad generally overshadows the good anyway.

"One area of concern recently has been the off-the-field behavioral issues," commissioner Mike Slive said. "We are confronted with the reality that not all student-athletes fulfill the expectations we have for them. As a whole, the problematic behavior of a few casts a dark cloud over many.

"While a few student-athletes garner headlines with their occasional thoughtless and highly visible, often nocturnal activities, the fact is that the vast majority of these young people, including the nearly 5,000 SEC student-athletes, conduct themselves appropriately."

That stat might be skewed since it includes more than just football players.

But it helps reaffirm that the ratio of arrests is emerging as a go-to number in grading a program.