(Columbia) July 29, 2003 - College football fans love college football, and they flock to the games, inevitably leading to traffic congestion. Dozens of South Carolina State Troopers have traditionally directed traffic at the games and other events at no charge. 

This fall universities and other groups could be asked to pay as much as $24 an hour per trooper. The Department of Public Safety was given the option to charge by Governor Mark Sanford through his budget vetoes.

The Patrol is to get nearly $38 million in the budget year beginning July 1st, down 30% from the Patrol's $54 million budget three years ago.

USC Athletics spokesman Kerry Tharpe says the fees are part of the game where the Highway Patrol is a major player, "When you have 80,000 people coming to one small place, it's like a small city. We need them to make sure things run smoothly." Tharpe says it means about $100,000 extra for a football season, "It's just the price of doing business. For our fans to have what they're used to, it's money well spent."

Highway Patrol Commander Colonel Russell Roark says the institution of fees is designed to help make up for what the Patrol lost in budget cuts, "It puts money back in our operating budget. We can take that and put it back in our operating [fund] and help defray other costs."

It helps that USC football has a $44 million budget to kick around. Col. Roark isn't sure what that will mean to smaller schools and smaller budgets, "Is it going to have an effect? Certainly. The fact they haven't had to pay it before? How is it going to effect them? I just don't know."

A lot of details still have to be worked out as far as who and how much they will be charging, but the Highway Patrol does expect to start this fall.

Reporting by Megan Hughes
Updated 6:28 by BrettWitt