USC practice policy announced


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Lane Kiffin announced Tuesday USC’s new policy for football practice access.

In order to gain admittance to practice, guests must request access from the USC athletic department as least 24 hours beforehand. Even so, this opportunity will not be available to anyone.

Those who can take advantage of the approval policy are parents, guardians, siblings and spouses of current players. Other guests, escorted by USC administrators, may also be admitted. Furthermore, USC student access will not be affected.

Those primarily banned from entering practice are agents, their employees or their representatives.

Guests admitted to practice may only have contact with coaches and athletic department employees.

Kiffin’s decision to implement these new policies is likely a response to a suggestion from the NCAA committee that conducted USC’s hearing for alleged recruiting violations last month. By denying entrance to agents, USC hopes to protect its players from infringing upon NCAA stipulations that bar a college player’s conducting business with an agent.

The previous practice policy which former coach Pete Carroll had in place was one of the most relaxed in college football. While many Trojans fans enjoyed being able to watch the football practices, it left the door open for agents to being fraternizing with players. Furthermore, it gave other teams the option to maximize scouting efforts against the Trojans and perhaps steal some of the team’s plays.