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Why Jim Harbaugh is worth $40 million to the University of Michigan’s football team
Washington Post ^ | January 02, 2015 | John Feinstein

Posted on 01/03/2015 6:15:15 PM PST by iowamark

The University of Michigan’s decision this week to commit at least $40 million to Jim Harbaugh over the next seven years raised quite a few eyebrows. Forty million dollars — $5 million a year to start, along with a $2 million signing bonus — for a football coach?

Can jock-Armageddon, when the entire bloated-with-corporate-dollars sports world explodes, be far behind?

Actually, Armageddon has already pretty much come and gone in college athletics. The attitude of many players at the most visible schools was summed up by a tweet sent two years ago by Cardale Jones, who will start at quarterback for Ohio State in the national championship game on Jan. 12: “Why should we go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL,” he tweeted shortly after arriving at Ohio State. “We ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.”

To paraphrase “A Chorus Line”: Honesty 10, grammar 3.

Harbaugh won’t be the highest-paid coach in college football in 2015, even if you calculate his first-year salary at $7 million (bonus included).

Alabama Coach Nick Saban will make $7.2 million. In fact, at least a dozen football coaches will make at least $4 million in the coming year. According to USA Today’s annual report on coaching compensation, almost every football coach among the 65 schools in the “power-five” conferences makes seven figures, and, as Harbaugh’s deal proves, there’s no sign of that trend reversing itself anytime soon.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Sports
KEYWORDS: california; jimharbaugh; michigan; nfl; sanfrancisco; sanfrancisco49ers; uofmichigan
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To: InvisibleChurch

It’s good for the Big Ten as a whole.


21 posted on 01/03/2015 7:01:23 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: goodwithagun

Did you read the article? [Rhetorical question] College football programs are hugely profitable. Harbaugh’s salary certainly will not come from tax revenue.


22 posted on 01/03/2015 7:01:41 PM PST by iowamark (I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy)
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To: goodwithagun

http://www.fastcodesign.com/welcome.html?destination=http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672861/infographic-whos-your-states-highest-paid-public-employee

Forgot that.


23 posted on 01/03/2015 7:03:34 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: iowamark

I’m a former NCAA athlete. I know from where the money generates and to where it will go. Please check on the link I recently posted.


24 posted on 01/03/2015 7:05:53 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: goodwithagun

Given the ginormous NCAA tv money, and stadium receipts, I think it’s safe to say that football at top line universities like UofM is a profit center not a cost.


25 posted on 01/03/2015 7:06:58 PM PST by nascarnation (....)
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To: Perdogg
I'm just glad he is no longer a Niner. Never liked him at Stanford either.

You can have him Michigan.

26 posted on 01/03/2015 7:07:09 PM PST by Michael.SF. (It takes a gun to feed a village (and an AK 47 to defend it).)
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To: cripplecreek

It’s a lot easier to cut or bench to a potential problem before they make it to the big show when the problem in question plays 2nd base for the Altoona Curve or the Richmond Flying Squirrels. MLB benefits from it’s non-ultra popular farm system in that way for sure.

FReegards


27 posted on 01/03/2015 7:09:41 PM PST by Ransomed
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To: goodwithagun

A painfully stupid chart. If you want to make money, make somebody else money. Yes coaches tend to be the highest paid state “employee” (mostly paid by boosters), because they bring money in. It’s simple math, the Michigamn football program hauled in $82 million last year, and now Jim is going to get $5 million of that. If you brought $82 million into your state you’d probably be highest paid “employee” too.


28 posted on 01/03/2015 7:14:08 PM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: Michael.SF.

You didn’t like 3 NFC championship games in a row? You preferred a decade without going to the playoffs? He might be an $#%%^^& but he’s really good at his job and running him out of town was stupid.


29 posted on 01/03/2015 7:15:25 PM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: discostu

So we use tax dollars to play the lottery? If the teams does well we win! If not oh well, the tax payers are good for it!


30 posted on 01/03/2015 7:15:47 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: goodwithagun

He’s not being paid with tax dollars. He’s being paid with football dollars, the program will bring in 16 times his salary.


31 posted on 01/03/2015 7:17:36 PM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: discostu

He’ being paid 100% football donation dollars!? That’s rich!

I’ll end with this: As conservatives we constantly say imagine what it would be like if xyz were privatized? It would be so much more profitable! Same with college sports, plus we wouldn’t have to subsidize (with tax payer dollars not used to pay a head coach) the lesser popular sports.


32 posted on 01/03/2015 7:21:22 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: dfwgator

Very much so.


33 posted on 01/03/2015 7:22:38 PM PST by InvisibleChurch (http://thegatwickview.tumblr.com/ http://thepurginglutheran.tumblr.com/)
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To: goodwithagun

Not just donations, REVENUE
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/wolverine_football_carries_uni.html

Michigan football brings in $82 million on $23 million in expenses. It’s one of the most profitable business units in college sports.

No tax dollars.

You picked a bad example. None of what you’re complaining about happens here.


34 posted on 01/03/2015 7:24:23 PM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: goodwithagun

Your source acknowledges that coaches are not paid with public funds and goes on to argue that their salaries are “inflated” and “not fair”. The football program at major universities not only pays for football, but also supports many other sports mandated by Title IX. Of course, these aren’t men’s sports, supporting them would be “unfair”.

Major college football generates millions for the coaches, the schools, the TV industry, concessions, sports gear, etc., etc. Only one group of people are getting screwed by all of this and it isn’t the taxpayer, it’s the players.


35 posted on 01/03/2015 7:30:54 PM PST by centurion316
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To: discostu

Ugh. It’s a government run business. Yay fascism! In the end, it costs much ,ore than it brings in. College costs aren’t going up for the heck of it! Watch their tuition rise dramatically simply because of the notoriety that this brings. Tax payer dollars will be moved from the football program to the women’s water polo and coed darts teams. The tax payer dollars will still be spent. The football program might bring in more than it spends, but the earmarked taxpayer dollars will still be spent somewhere.


36 posted on 01/03/2015 7:33:33 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: centurion316

See post #36, and I completely agree that the athletes are getting screwed. That’s due to the unholy alliance with the NCAA and the universities. That org needs shut down, and shut down now.


37 posted on 01/03/2015 7:35:31 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: iowamark

Jim Harbaugh is a great football coach but he’s a restless soul. Do you Michigan fans think he’s staying for more than the length of his contract? He’s gonna get bored and antsy to get back to the NFL so you Wolverine fans better hope he gets this thing turned around in a hurry because if he follows his usual pattern he’ll be gone to the NFL by 2020.


38 posted on 01/03/2015 7:42:45 PM PST by dowcaet
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To: goodwithagun

No it’s not. Once again you are quite simply barking up the wrong tree. Most big time college sports teams are actually run by a sub-corporation, it frees them up to do things like turn a $50 million profit.

College costs aren’t going up because of big football programs.

Those aren’t tax dollars supporting women’s polo, Michigan sports as a whole is profitable, read the link.

There aren’t earmarked taxpayer dollars for Michigan football, or Michigan sports.

You need facts. You should have actually left when you said in closing, because you’re just digging deeper and deeper. You are, quite simply, wrong.


39 posted on 01/03/2015 7:44:29 PM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: discostu

The. Money. Will. Still. Be. Spent. After all the math is done and the transgender underwater fire prevention team gets their diverted funds, it’s a loss.


40 posted on 01/03/2015 7:46:38 PM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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