McGee Downplays Reports : College sports: USC athletic director says reports he is a candidate at South Carolina are only speculation.

Downplaying speculation that he is an active candidate for the athletic director’s job at the University of South Carolina, USC Athletic Director Mike McGee said Sunday night that he is merely a consultant for the school.

“Perhaps a half-dozen schools have called me over the last few years in this sort of situation,” McGee said. “And South Carolina is currently one of them.”

McGee said that South Carolina’s athletic director, King Dixon, is stepping down at the end of the season. McGee said that, at the request of the school, he has provided it with a handful of names for consideration to replace Dixon. McGee said his consulting role is unpaid.

Stories in the Columbia (S.C.) State and Greenville (S.C.) News have mentioned McGee as a leading candidate. McGee responded to those stories Sunday night by calling them “speculation, nothing more than that.”

“School officials at South Carolina would be the first to tell you that I am a sounding board, someone they have asked for advice,” McGee said.

South Carolina President John Palms is handling the search for Dixon’s replacement and reportedly hoped to have a candidate for the executive committee of the university’s Board of Trustees this week.

McGee has been athletic director at USC since 1984. Much of his background is in North Carolina. He graduated from Elizabeth City, N.C., High School, was both an All-American football player and football coach at Duke, is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and was also football coach at East Carolina for a year before taking over the head job at Duke.