<p>"When Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear announced in February that his state was taking nearly $3 billion in federal stimulus cash, he described the decision as necessary to save jobs, preserve "quality of life" and a "strategic investment ... to position Kentucky for the future."</p>
<p>Little did Beshear know that two months later, as teachers, police and other municipal workers breathed a collective sigh of relief that their jobs had been saved at least for now the state's primary institution for higher learning would "invest" $32 million in a well-traveled but highly successful basketball coach.</p>
<p>John Calipari, who for nine seasons had pushed the University of Memphis to the pinnacle of college basketball, was introduced Wednesday as just short of a savior for a University of Kentucky program that by local standards had fallen on hard times.</p>
<p>"I do not walk on water," Calipari told reporters and eager alumni who had gathered at a packed news conference in Lexington. But his proven ability to walk on hardwood is everything the university's administration asked for, and it decided Calipari was worthy of an eight-year, $31.65 million investment about $4 million a year.</p>
<p>Little was made of the fact that months earlier the state, citing revenue shortfalls, had cut $20 million in aid to the university, and that its trustees voted to cut 15 staff members and eliminate 170 unfilled jobs...."</p>
<p>One has nothing to do with the other. All of Calipari’s salary will come out of the athletic dept income and donations. UK basketball is a huge business with many rich and fervent supporters.</p>
<p>I saw the news conference announcing the new UK coach and they were careful to point that out…the program is completely self sustaining…they mentioned multimedia deals which help.
As is mentioned above, Coach Jim Calhoun of UConn and Gino (the Women’s coach) both bring in a lot of money to the UConn program.<br>
But…it is hard to swallow when the schools are all going through budget issues.</p>
<p>With the most storied legacy in all of college hoops, U. of Kentucky basketball turns a $6.5 million per year profit. It’s teetering on the brink of losing that windfall by letting the legacy slide into mediocrity. They’re investing $4M of that annual profit in one of the few people around whose track record suggests that he can turn around Kentucky basketball the same way Pres. Obama is trying to turn around the economy. I bet he does it in a hurry, and the basketball program’s profit grows even larger while continuing to be the most visible PR arm of the larger university. It’s all business - UK’s not spending money here - they’re investing money to make money.</p>
<p>^ Yeah. And if that ain’t pressure on Coach Cal, I don’t know what is. </p>
<p>IMO, UK is living off the fumes of past glory and hoping they can reignite it by loading all their eggs in this basket. It’s a heck of a longshot. SEC basketball in this day and age is pretty much third-rate, and UK is a second-tier power in a third-rate conference. Sure, Calipari’s got name recognition and star power, but so do Jim Calhoun at UConn, Coach K at Duke, Roy Williams at North Carolina, Tom Izzo at Michigan State, and probably a dozen or more coaches at a dozen or more schools that have had more success on the hardwood than UK in recent decades. Compound that with the fact that there’s just not enough homegrown talent in the state of Kentucky to get the job done, and you start to appreciate the magnitude of the task before Calipari. He’s got to out-hustle and out-recruit, on a national basis, coaches who have an equally high profile and far more recent success in their basketball programs, and in many cases far more to offer an aspiring athlete than 4 years in Lexington. He did a pretty good job of it at Memphis, at a sleeping school in a sleepy conference in a sleepy backwater corner of the basketball world. It won’t be so sleepy at UK. </p>
<p>So we’ll see. Maybe the big gamble will pay off. But this is one big-time roll of the dice by the UK administration. Lose on this roll and they’re probably done as a basketball power for a good long time.</p>
<p>Div. 1 college basketball and football is a business. </p>
<p>The coaches are paid to essentially run entertainment businesses. Some of those businesses are among the most successful in their states. </p>
<p>It is folly to think of these enterprises in any other way. </p>
<p>And the college Presidents could end it all in a heartbeat if they wanted to. They never will - the money and alumni attraction are too great. </p>
<p>And while I wouldn’t pay Calipari this kind of money (watch out for the characters he will bring in to play), the fact that he is getting paid so handsomely has nothing to do with our current economic state of affairs. There always will be successful people in the entertainment business. I don’t see many complaining about what Sean Penn pulls down.</p>
<p>The disgrace is not even so much what they pay, it is (to me) the devasting effects Div 1 has on children. So many kids think sports are their answer, when relatively few will ever make a living with any. Instead of viweing sports as a healthy activity, it takes on a focus that is unhealthy.</p>
<p>That is not the fault of college sports or professional sports. That is the fault of the parents who continually tell their kid that he or she is amazing at any sport and dish out money for “select teams” and “elite teams” and on and on constantly.</p>
<p>I agree with hops. It is the parents fault. Our DS’s best friend had the chance to play football at a lower quality university on a full ride, or go to a higher university on a partial merit. He chose the merit, b/c he realized he would never play professionally, but he would be a professional in the corporate world and the education meant more.</p>
<p>DS goes to UMD, (Bullets alma mater) I use to feel the same way, until Bullet explained to me how much money the Fridge and Gary bring into the school (everytime they play on national tv, the school gets money). When they are bringing in that kind of money and living under that level of pressure they deserve to be monetarily rewarded.</p>
<p>I also agree…lets complain more about Sean Penn, since Hollywood is getting bailout money and the universities aren’t!</p>
<p>Hops, I am not talking about the kids of the typical CC poster. I am talking about the kids growing up in poor neighborhoods whose parents probably didnt even go to college.</p>
<p>While total athletic budgets may not be profitable, the big two revenue sports (football and men’s basketball) certainly can be. Indeed, at most big publics, those two men’s programs spin off enough cash so the Uni can fund all the other non-revenue sports, including those mandated by Title IX, i.e., women’s teams. Without revenue from bigtime football and b’ball, the other teams – both men’s and women’s – would all be reduced and/or eliminated at many publics.</p>
In case you haven’t noticed, Calipari hasn’t exactly been offering anyone four years anywhere. He rents his top players for a year or two on their way to the NBA, and the NBA’s recent rule change shutting down drafting kids right out of high school was a godsend to Calipari (in the form of Tyreke Evans). Other coaches do it, too, but he has really been the champ.
A few weeks ago, I found the University of Florida Athletics Department budget for 2008-2009 online, and posted a link. That document had historical data for the year in which Florida won national titles in both football and men’s basketball. So how many millions did Florida football and basketball bring in to the non-athletic side of the University of Florida in one of the best years any program has ever had? Less than one. What they do is fund the other athletic programs. Of course, I’m sure the publicity for the University was very valuable, and that alumni contributions etc. went up, so the actual cash contribution of the sports programs significantly understates their value. But the actual cash contribution is shockingly, shockingly small.</p>
<p>JHS- You are right about Calipari. Almost none of his players actually graduate. Say what you want about Bobby Knight, but most of the kids graduated and he ran a clean program. Calipari really comes close (or over) the line in his recruiting, but Kentucky has always been a shady program in my opinion. We’ll see how it goes.</p>
<p>This is a business decision by Kentucky. The quicker one separates NCAA football and basketball from the world of education, the easier it is to understand the dynamics and the economics of such programs. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Calipari better have a highly paid set of lawyers on his side, considering how Kentucky “screwed” the now departed coach Gillispie to the proverbial wall. The people who are running the big sports programs in our universities are not a bunch of ing</p>
<p>Here’s my issue, placing a ball in their hand from poor neighborhoods does not corrrelate into a higher chance for a scholarship…placing a book does!</p>
<p>In our last town, the only hs that did not meet the No Child Left Behind Act, had their top 10% of students get full rides to MIT, DUKE, UNCCH, UVA, BERKELEY, etc on Merit. Not one student got recruited for Basketball or Football even for IS NC STATE, let alone UNCCH or DUKE.</p>