I know I'm going to stir the pot here, but seriously, I'm tired of hearing people get mad at guys like Brian Kelly or Jerry Kill for jumping ship. If you want to keep your great coach, give him a reason. Half the salary of a WAC coach and 12,000 fans (pre-halftime) won't get it done.

http://themacdaily.com/index.php?news&nid=573

From the article:

Brian Kelly built an outstanding program at Grand Valley State long before he came to Mount Pleasant. Then, the speed at which he turned the Chippewas into a powerhouse was extraordinary. Was he rewarded with a big paycheck, state of the art facilities or even a packed house on game day? It turns out... no.



So, when Cincinnati came calling, what did CMU do to keep its up-and-coming coach? Nothing. The Chippewas didn't throw a comparable BCS-worthy raise at Kelly (like say Boise State would) or try to get him better facilities (like even Eastern Michigan is doing). Instead, the school sat idly by while he went to a more prestigious school with a better TV contract and more zeros in his paycheck.

There are a few inacurracies in this quote from the article.

While it is true that CMU did not offer a salary increase as large as what Cincinnati offered Kelly and then Jones, it is not true that CMU did not try to keep them.

Both Kelly and Jones were offered raises and extensions at the time of Cincinnati's courting of our coaches (word was that it was in the $600K + range with incentives for Jones and Kelly with multiple years). But it was not even close to the $1Million+ per year that Cincinnati was offering.

Why?? it wasn't that CMU didn't want to keep Kelly and Jones. Most fans and boosters DID want to retain them.

However, we are part of the have nots in the BC$ system and CMU just can't afford to be throwing millions of dollars in salaries around for its football coaches unless we get in on the money pie that the BC$ hoards.

Its as simple as that.

Put a college football playoff system together with all 120 teams having a chance at the big money and you will see big name coaches staying for longer periods of time at a university if all the FBS teams are able to pay their coaches more money instead of just the BC$ teams.

This thread is funny coming from a guy who roots for a team that notoriously has coaches with low salaries.... In a stadium that is regularly less than 1/2 full.

The difference is, nobody else wants their coaches because they simply don't win. In the MAC, if you find a way to win titles and show you can build a program, your gonna eventually get an opportunity at a bigger job. Its always been that way.....Bo, Randy Walker, Gary Pinkell, Brady Hoke, Brian Kelly, Butch Jones, Jerry Kills, Turner Gill, Urban Meyer....I can go on. Its not about ponying up and paying more. That isnt realistic for this conference. These jobs are stepping stone jobs to bigger things.

MAC stands for, "(M)oney (A)in't ©omin'!"