<p>Apparently not so much.</p>
<p>The way I look at it is that coaches are part of the entertainment industry and the big shots in that industry make big money. As long as salaries are paid by monies generated by the athletic operations I would be wasting way too much emotional energy getting worked up about it.</p>
<p>Knute Rockne made about three times the salary of any other faculty member back in the day. Mixed emotions then, as well.</p>
<p>Faculty are paid in part based on the pay of other jobs they could get. A gender studies professor with few alternatives to teaching while remaining in the field will be paid less than an econ professor who could go join a consulting firm, and they both will be paid less than a doctor in the med school who could work full time in a hospital or private practice. A D1 football coach could work as a head or auxilary coach for a professional team, so if a school wants a good coach, they're going to need to pay him a competitive amount.</p>
<p>Good athletic programs bring in scholarship money for the underpriviliged. And nobodies chances are really hurt by the 50 or so athletes that get in on athletics alone.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Are faculty jealous of football coach salary?<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>No, but the Governor probably is. At big football factory state universities the football coach is often the highest paid public official in the entire state.</p>
<p>Funny, cause my professor was just talking about this a few days ago (he's an English professor, for a GE course). He was talking about money in literature and was making some analogies between Pete Carroll (our football coach), the president of the university, and himself (in terms of salary).</p>
<p>After he was done, he joked that at least he was tenured and essentially guaranteed a job till he retires - a football coach can be fired any time the team isn't winning.</p>
<p>I would be willing to bet that the professors for the most part would never be willing to work as hard as the football coach does, except the profs who are multi-tasking by consulting (e.g. computer science/science/business profs). That is basically a year-round, nonstop job involving also tons of travel, sleepless nights, a gazillion different types of skills, and incredible stress.</p>
<p>This thread was inspired by a story about the very high salary of the head football coach. I think many of the posts above are correct when they mention that the perks professors enjoy, including but not limited to tenure, offset the higher annual salary of the head football coach. However, the subject is more complicated, in my opinion, when the salaries of assistant coaches, trainers, and second echelon administrators of athletic departments are considered. A few weeks ago two of the assistant football coaches at state U here got significant raises, bringing their annual salaries to 200K, which is completely in line with salaries in the conference. Quite a few profs were indeed annoyed by that, even if they don't envy the head coach his job or compensation.</p>
<p>Must be that time of year. Rutgers football coach just got a raise and a 4 year contract extension. But hey, it's not about money!</p>
<p>
[quote]
"Certainly it's not a money issue, because if it was a money issue I wouldn't be here," he said. "I passed up more than this (when Miami courted him in December, offering $2.2 million annually to start)."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>When I see how their work gets dissected on the sportspage and in the blogosphere, it's hard to feel a lot of jealousy. Have you ever known the family member of a football coach? The whole family lives and dies by the football schedule. </p>
<p>I think the comment about them being in the entertainment industry is astute. It's a different world, a different pay scale.</p>
<p>I may add that so long that they don't bear the title of professor. lol</p>
<p>padad, some of them were professors. Joe Paterno taught English for years at Penn State. He's a Brown graduate. I despise the man, but he is no dope. Knute Rockne was a chemistry professor. </p>
<p>Don't paint with a broad brush, padad. Coaches are often highly intelligent.</p>
<p>I agree with the post about coaches being similar to those in the entertainment industry. Professors often get tenure, in sports they can love you one minute, hate you the next, and you are out of a job.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>...in sports they can love you one minute, hate you the next, and you are out of a job.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Sounds just like working for my company, except without the sky-high salaries. In fact tenure is pretty rare anywhere outside of academia and perhaps the civil service. So by itself, not having tenure is not a reason sufficient to justify the coaches' excessive salaries.</p>
<p>Some thoughts from a faculty member:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Generally, I don't envy others' pay. Pay tends to be market-based. Reducing the football coach's pay wouldn't raise mine one iota. As someone else said, this is the entertainment field. There are great pressures and great rewards ... for some.</p></li>
<li><p>If you think coaches work harder than faculty, you are probably wrong. Oh, I'm sure they work harder than SOME faculty, the way some faculty work harder than coaches. I would agree that it is a labor of love for most faculty, but labor, nevertheless. The never-ending pressure to bring in grants, do the research, publish, etc. leads quite consistently to 18 hour days early in one's career. I still work 12 hour days fairly consistently, taking rest breaks to post here. I am currently looking at a pile of journals I must read today if I'm to keep up even with a narrow speciality.</p></li>
<li><p>How hard you work does not equate to how much you're paid. In fact, there's a negative relationship between physical labor and pay.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm a big college sports fan. Having said that, I believe that the college sports monster has distorted higher ed in ways that are unhealthy. If I were King of the Universe, I'd turn college football and basketball teams into minor league pro teams or amateur club teams and get colleges out of the business of big time sports.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Stickershock
My comment was not an attempt to disparage their intelligence, merely to point out that they are not there to teach, and as they are not professors, their compensation should not be compared to faculty.</p>
<p>Some of them do teach, padad.</p>
<p>Stickershock:</p>
<p>What Division 1 coaches teach regular college courses these days?</p>
<p>tarhunt - i agree some faculty work equally as hard as football coaches. Some mighty dedicated researchers out there who truly love what they do. What faculty have, and most big time football coaches do not, is a private life. In a state like Tennessee, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana - you name it - the coach is one of the most recognizable public figures in the state (and certainly that comes with the territory given their salaries and the outsized centers of entertainment that football programs have become). </p>
<p>I think the whole mess in Div. 1 athletics (a former scholarship athlete myself) is way out of line and disruptive of the academic mission, but this kind of thinking clearly is tilting at windmills.</p>