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[quote]
Ohio State University hired Urban Meyer as its football coach Monday, giving him one of the richest contracts ever in college sports the latest indication that the big business of college football is undeterred by the nations broader economic woes or by concern about the prominence of sports on campus.</p>
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<p>For David Ridpath, a professor of sports administration at Ohio University and a member of the Drake Group, a network of professors who lobby for academic integrity in college sports, this represents far more than the going rate, which is the typical justification used by universities.</p>
<p>Weve long gone past anything thats reasonable, he said. If you put too much value on a program, it starts to swallow the university. It starts to guide the moral compass. Soon, a coach is going to make $10 million a year. Theres just no stopping it.
<p>"Among the service academies, it’s no surprise that Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo leads the pack. After racking up 27 wins in his first three seasons — the best start for a coach in school history — Niumatalolo signed a contract extension in April. According to USA Today’s figures, he’ll make $1,538,190 in 2011.</p>
<p>That figure puts the Navy coach just above the national average of $1.47 million, according to the report. It also gives him a salary higher than those of Air Force coach Troy Calhoun ($866,250) and Army coach Rich Ellerson ($610,000) put together.</p>
<p>Both Calhoun and Ellerson have bonuses that could drive their paychecks up significantly — USA Today lists Ellerson’s max bonus at $350,000, with Calhoun’s at $247,500. Calhoun also will pull down about $23,000 in “other pay” this year, according to the salary database."</p>
<p>While I think Meyer’s salary is absurd, I am more appalled by the military coaches (I had no idea) salaries! Does anyone know what is the reasoning behind them having football teams anyway?</p>
<p>The part of this that offends some people is that you have a rock-star endeavor (football) housed inside, or attached to, an organization (university) with a completely different mission and ethos. Like putting a nightclub inside a convent, if that doesn’t stretch the analogy too far. lol</p>
<p>It’s not that there is anything wrong with paying football coaches like the rock stars they are, it’s just that by pretending they are “faculty” it denigrates professors. And yes, the money starts guiding the academic and financial decisions of the university, which may not best serve the university mission.</p>
<p>At larger schools football is one of the most unifying shared activities and carries over well to the alumni years. While I am not sure it helps with overall donations it sure does not hurt when the team is winning. The TV exposure is worth $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to the school too.</p>
<p>the universities aren’t really paying these high coach salaries…ABC, CBS, ESPN, dorors, etc are really paying for them. </p>
<p>P.S. I don’t think anyone thinks coaches are “faculty.”</p>
<p>*While I think Meyer’s salary is absurd, I am more appalled by the military coaches (I had no idea) salaries! Does anyone know what is the reasoning behind them having football teams anyway? *</p>
<p>Are you against schools fielding other teams or just football???</p>
<p>That’s the argument, and it may be valid. But does “working together as a team” require a coach who makes as much in one year as a full colonel does in 12?</p>
<p>I suppose that paying for a winning football team might be compared to a project like the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds – it is part of the marketing and recruitment strategy for that branch of the armed forces. I question, though, whether the services are just nabbing candidates from one another rather than increasing the pool of qualified young people applying to the academies. Seems to me like the type of candidate who gets into a service academy isn’t likely to go ROTC instead due to football, but I’m certainly no expert on that.</p>
<p>I guess you have not met many of the med school, law school, business, sciences, or engineering faculty. Some to many of them earn well over their university salary doing outside work, starting companies, licensing patents, writing textbooks or in the case of med schools–seeing patients. The high six to seven figures are not that rare.</p>
<p>Hmmm. That doesn’t seem to account for the UM vs OSU record of 58-43-6* (with an asterisk to account for someone’s “vacated victory” in 2010.)
But perhaps math is different in Columbus.</p>
Hail to the Victors!</p>