THE STATE -
How USC scored a unique partnership of education with Major League Soccer BY GREG HADLEY
APRIL 14, 2021 01:56 PM
In the past 25 years, the ranks of Major League Soccer have included a little more than a dozen University of South Carolina alumni. That number could be about to grow — significantly.
USC and MLS formally announced a new six-year partnership Wednesday that will give professional soccer players, both current and retired, a chance to earn degrees from the university’s online programs.
The deal, which makes the university’s Carolina Online program the official education partner of MLS, includes discounted tuition rates for both undergraduate and graduate degrees for MLS players, youth academy players and league employees. Tuition for online graduate classes at USC Columbia will be discounted 15%, while online undergraduate classes will cost $208 per hour, down from the typical rate of $333.
In return, South Carolina will get a number of benefits, most prominently field-level signage visible on TV during national broadcasts, as well as video board and public address announcements during games. The university will also receive tickets for games and behind-the-scenes access at MLS events, and MLS agreed to have player appearances, as well as contributing staff to a speaker series for Sport and Entertainment Management and Business students.
“The online program reaching into Major League Soccer, it just really brings us to the national level, even more so,” university President Bob Caslen said. “But it also really serves a purpose, and that is to deliver an education to people who really have a strong desire to get an education who otherwise can’t go into a resident model. ... And we’re excited that they’re going to be our students as well.”
South Carolina is paying MLS $7 million over six years for the deal, starting at $600,000 this year and increasing gradually to $1.71 million by 2026 — which also happens to be the year the World Cup is set to return to North America, with most of the games taking place in the United States. MLS officials and observers believe the event will further boost the popularity of the sport and the league in the United States.
The USC-MLS partnership was unveiled Wednesday at an on-campus event featuring Gov. Henry McMaster, Caslen, MLS assistant commissioner Gary Stevenson and former Gamecock soccer and MLS player Tyler Ruthven, while alum and SEC Network host Alyssa Lang served as emcee. Also on hand were representatives from Charlotte FC, a new MLS franchise set to begin play just up the road from Columbia in 2022.
“I think the Carolina Online initiative was very different than most of the other programs that we looked at,” Stevenson said of why South Carolina was selected. “It was progressive and it was innovative and it was adaptive to what an individual needs, and that ability for a professional athlete, whose schedule is very different than a normal student ... the way that this was conceived allows our athletes, our coaches that are involved in our sport to kind of build their own program, which is really, really unique.”
Exactly how many players will take advantage of the new program remains to be seen, Stevenson said, though surveys indicated there is interest. The number of MLS players who come out of the traditional college soccer pipeline has been steadily declining, as more top prospects go to development academies, turn pro out of high school and then earn their college degrees later and often virtually.
