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 ...
Only one group of people are getting screwed by all of this and it isn’t the taxpayer, it’s the players.
BS. Players are getting a free ride like no other scholarship students. The only thing they pay for is clothing and entertainment
Huh? There is no US taxpayer money involved and probably no state tax money involved either. In my state, none of the athletic programs are allowed any tax money and I suspect it is like that in most states. I know Maryland is the same, too. Schools raise the money through fund raisers, alums, boosters, ticket sales, etc.
They are a public employee, but that does not mean their salaries are paid via state taxes.
I love your tag line, by the way.
Athletic departments have to break even with no tax dollars involved. They have to be self sustaining. Trust us.
Both programs benefited from his tenure...as will Michigan.
All of mine slept through the night at six weeks. When they are sick or teething, like now, they do not sleep. She can scream her head off in pain and wake up everybody else, or gain comfort in mommy’s arms while the meds kick in. I can’t believe I have to explain this, on a sports thread no less.
It was a fair bargain 40 years ago, but not in today’s top programs. If the NCAA doesn’t fix it soon, they are going to get a solution shoved down their throats by the courts and none of us are going to be happy with the result.
No it will not be. Harbaugh will make a Teacher’s salary and benefit package as a State of Michigan employee, where he will instruct 90+ young men in PE classes — usually “Football Theory” or “Athletics Seminar”. (As a side note, the young men on the football team are actually attending “classes” when they practice and play, which is why the official practice time is limited to 22 hours per week.) Figure that the official public compensation is $200,000 tops.
The remaining money will be paid by Alumni and boosters. This is how coaching contracts are done at Public Schools and it fairly common knowledge.
And you just have to look at the Pirates record since then to see how pathetically stupid THAT thinking is. It’s a business, the goal is to win.
Actually that's not quite accurate. U of M's football program generates over $82 million per year in revenues with an additional $22.5 million coming from sponsorships, licensing and advertising agreements.......
And did the Niners do that this year?
The question to ask is; would their chances of winning next year be higher or lower with Harbaugh.
Management made the decision that they are better off w/o him. Time will tell who is right on that call.
They would have if they hadn’t sabotaged their coach. For the decade before he showed up they failed to make the playoffs. He took them to the conference finals 3 years in a row, won one, got the Super Bowl.
Their chances of winning next year will be lower. When you ill treat a top coach like that it reduces the quality of coaches you can choose from. Just look across the bay in Oakland, that’s the fate of teams that get rid of good coaches for bad reasons.
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