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The Price is Wrong
Published: 8/5/2009 11:43 PM
Last Modified: 8/5/2009 11:43 PM


Urban Meyer. Mike Simons / Tulsa World

Urban Meyer is going to make $4 million per year, never mind that the economy is as robust as Abe Vigoda.
This is not a blog to pick on the Florida football coach. Many college football coaches other than Meyer are scheduled to cash paychecks equal to the gross national product of Norway.
This is a blog about how the people who approve these salaries are the kind of people that W.C. Fields was referring to when he said there was one born every minute.
Why pay a college football coach that much money?
Probable rationale: Gee, we had best make our guy richer than Scrooge McDuck because someone else may try to hire him away and he's irreplaceable.
Response: Wrong!
You know what the Pittsburgh Steelers do when they lose a good coach? They go out and hire another good coach. The last three have all won Super Bowls.
If your favorite college loses its coach to a school that is willing to pay bigger bucks, then why not just hire another good coach who is willing to do the job for the piddling sum of, perhaps, $1 million.
Meyer is going to make $4 million. The shame of it is that he -- or any other really good coach -- would do it for way less than half that sum because that's more than reasonable.
Somewhere out there, there's a great coach who would take the Florida job for $400,000 and be glad to have it and likely would do well enough to keep packing the stadium.
But those who make hires keep shopping at the upscale mall when, really, they could find what they need at the Admiral Flea Market.
I wouldn't want an athletic director or university president to do my grocery shopping for me. I don't have room in the budget for a $100 banana, even if the reputation is top banana.
P.S.: Further evidence arrived Wednesday night that anyone can be replaced.
Journey played the BOK Center without singer Steve Perry and it still sounded absolutely like a Journey concert because the new kid has got game.



Reader Comments 5 Total
trahernsfriend (4 years ago)
And then there is this Jimmy:

Here's a listing of the top 10 schools nationally.

1. Texas: $120,288,370
2. Ohio State: $117,953,712
3. Florida: $106,030,895
4. Michigan: $99,027,105
5. Wisconsin: $93,452,334
6. Penn State: $91,570,233
7. Auburn: $89,305,326
8. Alabama: $88,869,810
9. Tennessee: $88,719,798
10. Oklahoma State: $88,554,438
And here's a list of the rest of the Big 12 schools and their national rankings, according to the Sentinel's chart.

11. Kansas: $86,009,257
17. Oklahoma: $77,098,009
20. Nebraska: $75,492,884
21. Texas A&M: $74,781,640
43. Colorado: $52,631,896
46. Missouri: $49,113,786
47. Kansas State: $48,160,113
56. Baylor: $44,151,763
58. Texas Tech: $42,844,855
63. Iowa State: $38,642,013

Florida sports bring in 106 MILLION dollars a year. Do you really think 4 is going to set them back any?
trahernsfriend (4 years ago)
FYI that is athletic revenue
Da5id (4 years ago)
Props to JT for calling obscene salaries obscene.

Many, if not most, sports writers feed the beast by "covering" coaches who "might" leave a program unless the school breaks the bank for a big raise. This probably results in increased "access" to the coach concerned. Criticizing the symbiotic system risks that coach's good will.

In the real business world, gross revenues of $100 million amount to a small operation, justifying a CEO salary of less than 4% of every dollar passing through the till.
Actually, I think it makes for worse coach-media relations when a coach makes a zillion dollars because (A) the coach gets full of himself and (B) the coach gets paranoid and puts up all kinds of walls to protect his high-paying job from prying eyes.
KYCane (4 years ago)
"..the economy is as robust as Abe Vigoda."

Great line. Funny.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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