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We do need to increase ALL base salaries for major sports. MAC coaches
are well underpaid.

MooneyRich86 wrote:We do need to increase ALL base salaries for major sports. MAC coaches
are well underpaid.

I respectfully disagree, and think that "BCS" coaches are OVER paid, thus making a reasonable MAC salary seem like chump change.

They are underpaid BECAUSE they are MAC coaches. Its the curse of a Mid-Major. Just dont have the $$$$ to increase salaries to match an OSU or USC. Just have to get used to it, unless you have some rich a$$ alums.

No such thing as underpaid or overpaid.

If we want a good coach, we'll pay him his market value. Brandon wasn't underpaid - we got exactly what we paid for.

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:Brandon wasn't underpaid - we got exactly what we paid for.

Not just because I like the guy, but as a businessman, I have to disagree with that. In the context of MAC coaches, Brandon was relatively low-paid. Consider that two of the highest-paid MAC coaches are Solich & Golden.

You could make a solid argument that Solich & Brandon are about equal, performance-wise. Both did well out of the gate, did the bowl thing, then things went downhill. Golden has built a lot of enthusiasm for Temple, but he still has yet to produce a winning record.

Anyway, without digging too deep into the numbers, I would submit that, for the money BG spent, they got a relatively good value on their investment. If BG wants more, they'll need to invest more.

I think Brandon was a pretty good value. We didn't even pay him enough to expect the mediocrity we got. Wasn't his salary one of the lowest in the MAC?

It's time to pony up some dollars and actually pay a legit coaching salary. I don't expect us to compete with BCS schools in terms of salary, but I don't like the fact that people can leave BG for other mid-majors and quadruple their salary. If we want to ever be one of the best non-BCS programs we're going to have to pay considerably more than what we have been.

I know it's always been a budgetary issue, but Christopher is finding money, and I hope he does so to pay a coach the way he should be paid. I'm hopeful we can find a way to at least pay in the $200k+ range (assuming we find a coach worth that money).

If we can build $8 million workout facilities, have plans for a $36 million basketball arena, and pay a coach $250k to go away, I have to believe there is money out there to actually pay a legit coaching salary.

hammb wrote:I'm hopeful we can find a way to at least pay in the $200k+ range (assuming we find a coach worth that money).

Actually, I'm thinking higher than that. Again, look at what Solich and Golden are pulling down. A strong base with serious incentives would be a good way to go. Of course, 'strong base' is a key - maybe start at $250k. And by 'serious incentives' I mean $25k or so for legitimate acheivments - win the MAC East, win the MACC game, get to a bowl game, etc.

Well, I hate to bring this into the discussion because of my obvious bias as a BG faculty member (but also an alum and Falcon fan), but it's easy to talk about how much more we ought to be paying coaches, but another thing to do it. We don't ave a lot of money just laying around right now and many instructors are being let go. As I understand it the financial losses of the fotball program are covered over with student fees, which we better not increase given that we are among the most expensive institutions of higher learning in Ohio already. Plus, enrollment has been dropping. The university is in a very tough financial position right now.

1987alum wrote:

hammb wrote:I'm hopeful we can find a way to at least pay in the $200k+ range (assuming we find a coach worth that money).

Actually, I'm thinking higher than that. Again, look at what Solich and Golden are pulling down. A strong base with serious incentives would be a good way to go. Of course, 'strong base' is a key - maybe start at $250k. And by 'serious incentives' I mean $25k or so for legitimate acheivments - win the MAC East, win the MACC game, get to a bowl game, etc.

BG needs to come up with more money for the assistants as well. Based on what Brandon was being paid, I would imagine our assistants were on the bottom as well.

professorjackson wrote:Well, I hate to bring this into the discussion because of my obvious bias as a BG faculty member (but also an alum and Falcon fan), but it's easy to talk about how much more we ought to be paying coaches, but another thing to do it. We don't ave a lot of money just laying around right now and many instructors are being let go. As I understand it the financial losses of the fotball program are covered over with student fees, which we better not increase given that we are among the most expensive institutions of higher learning in Ohio already. Plus, enrollment has been dropping. The university is in a very tough financial position right now.

I obviously don't have any of the budgets for the university or the football program in front of me. I do agree that this is not the time to be raising tuition to pay more for a football coach.

I think it is up to Christopher to find private donations to go towards funding the football program. As I said, I think he's shown so far in his tenure that he can find dollars for major projects. Hopefully he can find dollars to enhance the day to day running of the athletics department as well, and better coaching salaries are a large part of that.

a couple of high (Low?) lights from President Cartwright's comments to the faculty Senate this week:

"Translated to BGSU, we are considering several planning scenarios for the next biennium based on assumptions about enrollment, state support and tuition increases. Obviously, a change to each assumption changes the bottom line deficit for our operating budget, and none of the planning scenarios are positive. One that we consider reasonable based on what we know today requires that we cut about $7 million from the operating budget for next year – and that is on top of cuts already taken to balance the operating budget for this fiscal year. Is this the right budget reduction number? I don’t know what the specific numbers will be at the end of the process but I do know that they will be significant and I know that we cannot wait to make many necessary decisions."

"Again, underlying these decisions is a commitment to support our core mission. This means that there will likely be lay-offs and that we will also need to keep hiring in key areas."

"On another topic, within the past week I’ve been asked about several rumors regarding UT and BGSU. Here are the facts: (1) there are no merger discussions underway between UT and BGSU; (2) however, there are on-going discussions about partnerships, especially in research and technology transfer."