Midwest Voices

Yael T. Abouhalkah

The Kansas City Star

Love KU.

Love KU basketball.

Love KU coach Bill Self.

But hate the money pit that has become college football and basketball.

As in, Bill Self’s laughable new contract, announced Friday.

In the end, Self gets paid what he gets paid - as do Gary Pinkel at MU and Charlie Weis at KU and all the other coaches at their schools - because fans today have made college sports such an important part of their life.

They will play big bucks to watch kids play sports, but far too many won’t put a few bucks away in their 401(k)s, as distressing retirement statistics clearly show.

How sad.

For coaching a dozen or so 18- to 22-year-old young men how to play a game, Self will get almost $4 million a year.

Yes, I know a few coaches get even more.

And yes, Self coached a national championship team in 2008 and - by most reports - pretty much done it by the books without cheating.

Yes, I know the money won’t come directly from students or parents who send their kids to KU.

The sports program will finance the contract, KU officials point out.

But in a time of cutbacks on the KU campus - and campuses across America when it comes to instructors as well as caring for infrastructure - it’s simply insane what head coaches in basketball and football are paid in Division 1.

Remember all those private funds flowing to Self? These are coming in all likelihood from many people who don’t want to support higher taxes for education in Kansas - including funding for KU academics.

Just look at the Kansas Legislature, which represents the people of the state, and the decisions made by those representatives in recent years to ratchet back the percentage of public funds spent on universities.

This rant isn’t original. I know. Could have come, oh, about 30 years or so ago, too.

Comments

1. 

   George Hunsucker

   Northland

   7 months, 3 weeks ago

   when instructors agree to cut their unseemly salaries and benefits and of course their cushy work schedules get back to me YT….

   In the meantime I think they could be the most overpaid, with the exception of San Francisco garbage collectors, people I know of for the actual work they do…..

   Self is functioning in the free market, producing a product want to buy, without a labor union…..

2. 

   Ryan Gerstner

   7 months, 3 weeks ago

   Another misinformed blog post. KU is currently in the middle of a $1.2 billion capital campaign. There are tens of thousands of people donating to KU academics every single year and those contributions dwarf what go into athletics (which only has about 5k donors). Even when you consider what people pay for tickets, KU generates about $3 in donations to academics for every $1 that goes into athletics for donations/tickets. I’m happy for every dollar that supports KU whether it’s for athletics or academics. Can’t we just be happy there are so many charitable Jayhawks out there?

3. 

   Mark Hastert

   7 months, 3 weeks ago

   “Self is functioning in the free market, producing a product want to buy….”

   ….if that’s not a stinging indictment of capitalism don’t know what is….

4. 

   Phil Cardarella

   7 months, 3 weeks ago

   Simple solution to college sports problem? New NCAA rule that provides:

   “No team shall be elegible for posr-season play unless the pay of their head coach does not exceed that of the average of all department chairs of the college or university, and the total of the payroll of coaches and assistants does not exceed the average of departmental payrolls of professors and assistant professors, and

   “Team members may receive a weekly stipend equal to 10 hours of the state or federal minimum wage, whichever is higher.”

   This would be an important statement that education is the primary purpose of the university, and allow the worker/players to take a girl out to a movie without selling their jerseys.

5. 

   George Hunsucker

   Northland

   7 months, 3 weeks ago

   Typical fascist approach..

   How about no lawyer gets a fee over $75 per hour??

6. 

   Phil Cardarella

   7 months, 3 weeks ago

   Why? None of these coaches is prevented from selling his services on the open market. Any University is free to pay its department heads a million dollars a year — on average. And any coach is free to huckster used cars in his spare time to add to his income.

   the point is that the college would not be compromised by directly emphasizing sports overeducation.

   And the kids would at least be paid as much as the guys working in the bookstore.

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