For the record, I’m not OK with the compensation paid to University of Oregon head football coach Chip Kelly and his nine assistant coaches.
First, these enormous coaching compensation packages create an imbalance within the university between the academic components of the university, its core missions of teaching and research, and these elite sports programs. It diminishes the educational component. And, as higher ed institutions struggle with the challenges of increasing educational costs, declining revenues from state governments, and competition from online programs, its is creating a situation where the tail (sports revenues) wags the dog (the education mission) that is unsustainable.
Second, the athletes get paid nothing. It is not fair. Student athletes are treated like indenture slaves working for next to nothing for fours years on the slight chance that they can become a professional and cash in. I know it is the NCAA system, but it is bad for the student athletes and corrupts the educational institutions that house it.
From the Oregonian article “Oregon Ducks football assistant coaches receive combined pay hike of $460,000 for 2012" by Aaron Fentress (here):
…… Oregon last month signed all nine assistant coaches to contract amendments that boosted the value of their existing individual salaries for this season to $2,759,500, up 20 percent, or $460,333, from last year's collective salary of $2,299,167.
"The raises are market driven," Oregon associate athletic director Craig Pintens said. "We want to continue to compete at a high level."
The raises do not include the combined $450,000 in retention bonuses six assistants are set to receive this month as part of their contracts negotiated under former coach Mike Bellotti. Three assistants hired since Chip Kelly became head coach in 2009 do not have retention bonuses in their contracts.
And:
….Kelly's contract, signed in 2010, has not changed. He will receive $3.5 million in guarantees this year and $3.8 million in 2013. The contract runs through 2016 with Kelly receiving $4 million in each of the final two years…..
Wealthy sports programs attached to financially withering educational programs will not and should not survive.
And, please tell me these rich coaches are not in PERS.
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