Coaches Should Be Paid More Than Professors

"Tommy Tuberville hopes to turn the Red Raiders"

So often we hear about the plight of our teachers not being compensated for the outstanding work that they do in the classroom. I completely agree that they have been under valued and under appreciated. However, I don't believe that they should be paid more than people that have a direct impact on generating revenues.  I strongly agree that they impact our children's lives and help build the future leaders of this country but I always ask the question, "Where will the money come from to pay them." Teachers are paid with federal and state funding, that means tax dollars. If people aren't willing to pay higher taxes, then teachers can't get higher salaries.

If we understand that concept, why is the faculty at Texas Tech so upset with Tommy Tuberville, their head football coach, who was just recently awarded a $500,000-per-year pay raise through 2015. The raise has angered some university faculty members, who have been asked to take a pay freeze in 2011. Already facing an 8 percent state funding reduction and with more funding cuts possible, Tech officials killed $3 million in faculty raises for 2011. However, Tuberville's new five-year, $11 million contract guarantees the coach at least $2 million per year. That's up from $1.5 million in the contract he signed in 2010.


At a faculty senate meeting last week, several faculty members questioned Tech's announcement last month that it would pay Tuberville the raise even as lawmakers considering cutting university revenue by tens of millions of dollars, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported in Monday's editions.

"If that was me, I would have turned it down. I would have been embarrassed," Julian Spallholz, a human sciences professor and Tech faculty senator, told the newspaper. If it were him he wouldn't have been offered the raise because he's not the head coach or CEO of a multimillion dollar enterprise. What people don't realize is that the head football coach at a major institution is like being a CEO of a corporation. Winning programs generate millions of dollars every year not to mention the millions in alumni donations that come in as a result of the team winning. However, in order to win at the level that the university needs to compete, they've got to pay the head coach at the level that his colleagues are being paid in order to keep him. Here's a look at the highest paid coaches in college football:

1. Nick Saban Alabama $5.16M
2. Mack Brown Texas $5.1M
3. Bob Stoops Oklahoma $4.2M
4. Kirk Ferentz Iowa $3.75M

Tuberville's salary is not even close to these guys but the university has to be competitive in pay in order to retain good talent bruh. If Tuberville can win at the level that Tech is expecting him to, that $2 million dollars per year will look like peanuts in a few years. Take a look at what the big time programs pull in when the teams are winning.

From the Equity in Athletics reports, here's a look at the top ten football revenue schools (2003-2004):

1) Texas $47,556,281
2) Tennessee $46,704,719
3) Ohio State $46,242,355
4) Florida $42,710,967
5) Georgia $42,104,214
6) Alabama $39,848,836
7) Notre Dame $38,596,090
8) Michigan $38,547,937
9) LSU $38,381,625
10) Auburn $37,173,943

Once again,  I respect the job that teachers do all over this country because my mother is a retired school teacher. My sister is currently a middle school teacher in Houston as well. However, just because the professor and the coach work at the same university doesn't mean that they should be judged by the same standard. They serve completely different roles and are paid out of two different baskets of money. By the way, when the professor lectures on Friday there won't be 90,000 people paying an average of $65.00 per ticket to see him or her do their job. It also won't be televised and the final exam doesn't pay the school $17 million(BCS bowl win or lose) at the end of the semester.

People don't spend money at the local restaurants and hotels all weekend and buy items in the bookstore when the professors show up to do their jobs. We have to begin to understand that sports is a multi-million dollar business on these college campuses and the head coaches are the conductors of those trains. Football and basketball are responsible for the all of the new growth on campus, new buildings, increased enrollment etc. Studies have shown that when a universities athletic programs are successful, it has a direct impact on admissions. The entire university will benefit from the $2 million investment into Tommy Tuberville in the long run. Professors can come and go and it won't make a bit of difference to the bottom line bruh.

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Get @ me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport