Staying for the Spoils?

Steve Kelley in a column about whether Spencer Hawes may stay another year or more at Montlake quotes Bill Frieder:

“If he leaves and does whatever he’ll do in the NBA, he’ll never have another day that compares with today,…”

There was a point in the second half of yesterday’s win over UCLA that I said the same thing from my couch as I watched Hawes overflow with excitement after a particularly nice play.

Earlier in the article Kelley says:

Deep into his first year of college, Hawes is digging life on Montlake. The game is slowing down. The pressure isn’t quite as intense. And all the unique, personal spoils of college life remain his to spend.

Some additional explanation is in order here. Just what are these unique, personal spoils?

If Kelley is referring to the emotional high that Frieder describes then, yes, he is correct though it is not clear just how Hawes can spend that feeling.

Treasure it, yes!

Perhaps he is referring to the education one can earn and the relationships that one can build during college.

The Free Dictionary gives these definitions of spoils:

1. spoils

a. Goods or property seized from a victim after a conflict, especially after a military victory.
b. Incidental benefits reaped by a winner, especially political patronage enjoyed by a successful party or candidate.

2. An object of plunder; prey.

None of these look particularly positive….

Which is it, Steve?