Coaching Pay Restrictions

[falconjw]

I see college football heading down the same road as the Yankees or any other high-payroll sports team. The best schools are going to continue to fork out large sums of money to encourage coaches to come to their school. What that in mind do you think they (NCAA or govt) should impose a salary cap type of pay restriction to coaches?

Every year at this time there is a major coaching carousel. If you string them out you can see alot of people are effected by them, in particular student-athletes. These student athletes are following the coaches and de-committing from their verbal committments.

I think they should cap the head coaching position salary. Pick a number, who cares, but what it will do is force the top coaches to stay at their schools and they will only leave if they like a particular situation or regional better. This will stop this one and done mentality to who ever will pay me the most money?

I wouldn't mind if coaches even got bonuses for winning the league or top 10 ranking, BCS National Champion, etc.


Downsizes?? Coaches will get "endorsement" money, signing bonuses, there's probably a million ways around such a deal

What do you guys think? Good idea or stupid ide?

[footballguy51]

I don't like the idea, but that's just me.

Honestly, when I first read your suggestion about possibly having the government impose a cap, I immediately had issues with it. However, I can see the government having a position in this IF they can prove that the money being paid to a coach is actually from money being given to the school from the government (which I think could be illegal).

Granted, it is the story of the haves and the have-nots, but isn't that how the world works? Are we really going to try to create socialism in EVERY aspect of life by making everything fair and equitable? Even though it sucks being a school that cannot afford to pay the big bucks, we are able to offer things outside of money that could retain coaches. Clawson is a family man, as are many coaches, and if schools can advertise that aspect of the position, along with potential lower costs of living, the money won't always make the difference. Then, you can pull a Boise State and bring your program up to a level of prestige that competes with the bigger dogs, making money essentially the only issue.

[Lord_Byron]

Who are the "they" you are referring to? This isn't like professional sports where a commissioner can make an edict that people then follow.

Football coaches are employees of individual universities. It's up to each university as to how much it is willing/able to pay to get the desired coach.

I'm at a loss at to how this would be implemented? The NCAA has no power over university hires. Would conferences set a max pay? Would conferences then collude with each other to keep pay low?

I don't think it's possible.

[daspollak]

College football and basketball for that matter are considered non-profit entities, therefore excluded from paying any taxes on the revenues they make. If you rule that they are profit making ventures and you tax them for it, the salaries head coaches make will come down.

If you want to have more stability in college football, create higher buyouts. This will make it much more costly to rob a school.

[Flipper]

Or we could just leave things the way they are...is this really such a big issue that we have to craft new laws or rules to address it? So Dave Clawson might get a better paying gig at a bigger school someday. I've left smaller companies to work for bigger companies (for more $$$ too) and no one batted an eye...in fact they seemed almost glad to see me leave...what the hell....those batards!!

[1987alum]

It's the free market in motion.

From my perspective, the bigger issue is the disparity in revenue between the BCS conference schools and the rest of the FBS. Restricting coaches' pay is attacking a symptom.

[falconjw]

Broken Promises, Useless Contracts: The Current State of Coaching
January 14, 2010 7:00 AM

by Jay Paterno

As a professional lifer in college coaching I am unhappy about the current state of my profession. The big money and media attention has altered the pressures and the dynamics of the job.

The word "coach" has been a title of respect. A college or high school coach has a great responsibility; he or she needs to remember that the sport is a part of a larger academic life for the student-athlete. The word "coach" should encompass the roles of educator, mentor, guidance counselor and manager of on-field duties.

Years ago many of the men got into coaching in spite of the low pay. To give you some perspective, in 1966 Joe Paterno shook hands with Penn State President Eric Walker and was told the pay was $20,000 a year.

There were no negotiations, no agents, no buyout clauses, and he was a tenured member of the faculty. Tenure was a bit of a safety net — and a reminder that the coach was part of an academic institution and not bigger than the institution.

A coach with tenure. That idea seems quaint by today’s standards. Who needs tenure when you can pack your bags and bolt for the next job?

The past few days have seen seismic movements in the world of college football coaching where vacancies have occurred at two of the more notable programs in the country.

Pete Carroll bolted USC for the NFL. Some have suggested it is because the NCAA posse is heading towards campus to sort out a myriad of allegations. Pete Carroll has asserted the fact that it was time to move on to a new challenge.

The vacancy at USC did not last long.

A year ago The University of Tennessee took a shot at a young coach who had been fired following a 5-15 stint with the Oakland Raiders. That coach, Lane Kiffin, rewarded Tennessee for its hiring of him by bolting after one 7-6 season for the vacancy created at USC.

The University of Tennessee paid out more than $5 million in coaching salaries (not to mention several million dollars to buy out the previous coach’s contract). At a time when universities are cutting staff and faculty, Tennessee spent more than $7 million to win seven games. A year later it is right back where it started.

This profession has lost touch with the reality of the world around us, and some coaches have lost touch with what the mission of our profession should be.

It wasn’t too long ago that we saw head coaches' salaries go past the $1 million dollar mark — they have now surpassed the $5 million mark with no sign of slowing down. We are starting to look as arrogant as the Wall Street bankers raking in seven-figure bonuses.

The astronomical explosion in coaching salaries continues at a time of 10 percent unemployment in America and exploding tuition costs burdening working class families.

I am not saying that every coach should take a vow of poverty or stay at his school for three decades, but we must remember what has made ours a noble profession. It is the mission of our profession: the use of sport to help young men transition from high school and prepare them for the world that awaits them after college.

Coaches walk into a recruit’s home and talk about how they will look out for that young man’s future. When the parents or guardians pass their boy on to college, they put his welfare into that coach’s hands. The expectation is that the coach will help to guide him through a very formative time.

A year later the same coach is off to another job for more money and left behind are the young men he promised to nurture towards their future. The coach talks about a “dream job” or a new challenge, and everyone gobbles it up.

To be fair, you can not solely blame the coaches. On the flipside, we have seen coaches fired after just two or three years — not even enough time to recruit a class that reaches its senior year. In football it is hard to put your own stamp on a program until you have a senior class that has risen through the ranks of your system.

Both university administrators and coaches know the contracts aren’t worth the paper they are written on. From the moment the contract is settled, the cost of the buyout is set. Schools and coaches all know what it will cost for either side to get out of the contract.

As coaches we can complain about the hair trigger firing of administrators, but the more we skip town, and the more we bail on the student-athletes the more we should realize that we are adding to our own problems.

The freedom to move around and the big paydays all come with a cost — you never get anything for free. What we’ve lost is the stability of our profession. In the end, the student-athletes are the ones left holding the bill.

[daspollak]

Great read. I think that many institutions have put sports on too high of a pedestal and it is time that we look at why colleges are there in the first place.