Interesting Tidbit:

We've come a long way in a short time. It was a mere eight years ago that Oklahoma's Bob Stoops became the first $3 million coach. Saban followed a year later in 2007 becoming the first $4 million coach.

In 2006, there were only nine coaches nationally making $2 million per year. According to the latest USA Today database, the top 51 highest-paid coaches in 2014 are making at least that much. The average coaching salary has nearly doubled in the past decade.

"What's happening is resources are more plentiful with the television contracts," McCaw said. "That's caused people to invest more dollars in football programs ... It tends to happen when you're working in the non-profit world. As revenue goes up, you tend to find ways to invest."

Part of that investment includes the current money being lavished on players. Whether it's a stipend through NCAA reform or flat-out pay for play resulting from current court cases, they're going to be compensated much more than the normal student.

It would be a different investment for Michigan. Harbaugh's salary would be one part going rate and one part emotional reparations. Michigan has screwed up the past two coaching hires. It is desperate to win big again. If it has to overpay to achieve its goal, so be it.

If not totally accepted -- the discussion regarding overpaid coaches at least as been muted. It is the cost of doing business. Currently, the cost at Oregon is fairly cheap.

Mark Helfrich -- the only playoff coach not in the top 14 -- is 51st in compensation according to USA Today. Dividing the staff's $5.2 million total compensation by the Ducks' 12 wins, Oregon got huge bang for the buck. It "paid" $439,800 per win this season. That's the lowest average among Power 5 schools.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...year-coach

Just to show how times have changed:

In 1982, a few days after beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Pitt's head coach Jackie Sherrill announced that he was leaving to take the job at Texas A&M. The reported terms of the contract were six years and a total of $1.7 million, an average of more than $280k per year. He became (as the New York Times put it) "the highest paid university employee in the nation." I remember that was a major story for several weeks. The basic attitude in the media was that "Even for a Texas university, this is insane." Pitt readily admitted that it did not make any serious effort to counter the A&M offer and was unwilling to match it.

A&M did have some good teams with Sherrill, and gained the upper hand over UT for a while. But there were no national championships, or even close to it, and all-in-all I think most observers agreed that A&M did not get as big a bang for their buck as they originally hoped. Pitt, on the other hand, went into a period of long-term decline, and despite a handful of T20 teams, has never re-emerged as an elite national power again.

And yet people get beside themselves when anyone suggest that the players should get a little more.

Coaching staff salaries are going to eat up all that TV money the P5 schools get.

(12-27-2014 11:36 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  Coaching staff salaries are going to eat up all that TV money the P5 schools get.

Now....if as we know it going to feed into the Assistant Coach level...

If Harbaugh takes the Michigan job, Bama will bump Saban's salary higher so that he's still highest paid in CFB.

As I said during this Harbaugh Saga, this hiring is going to push the paradigm. These major programs are going to be able to hire away from the NFL. The Networks are slowly losing the NFL. That means more money to pump into College Football.

Harbaugh is pushing the money line for head coaches and Muschamp is helping to push the money line and the prestige line for Coordinators at the College level.

These programs are hungry for Network money and it is time for the Networks to push The Plan.

You want a hint? Fox will be allowed to backfill with some Big Ten programming in regards to what it loses from the loss of the Big 12. Negotiations of this magnitude means everyone has to compromise, including ESPN.

It's all about economics. Is a successful football program worth an extra $10 million or more in donations, sponsorships, ticket sales and other revenue? If the answer is yes, than investing that amount on a coaching staff that will get you there is worth the cost.

Sometimes I think the Ivy league has the right idea. Get rid of athletic scholarships, only play 10 games. Be done by Thanksgiving and skip the playoffs. Leave the million dollar contracts to the NFL.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and Michigan is not going to rewind the clock, but it would have been interesting if 35 years ago if the BigTen just said, thats it, we are getting out of the million dollar sports business.

Next part of the Nuclear Option in College Football. Look for P5 mid-tier coaches to make 3-4 Million and top 8-10 million. Boosters cover much of this money, not the school outright. It won't impact P5 payouts as much as people thinks. It really hurts G5 schools keeping coaches. Who would blame the Memphis coach if offered a P5 job that doubles his salary? This entrenches G5 as stepping stones even further as well as mid-tier P5 schools to larger P5 schools. The Tuberville to Cincy from TT may become a thing of the past.

(12-27-2014 11:36 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  Coaching staff salaries are going to eat up all that TV money the P5 schools get.

They will have the money to spend...

Welcome to the new world and yet another signal that the "G-5" programs are not in the same division as the "Power" conferences. It only gets worse from here.

(12-28-2014 02:59 AM)He1nousOne Wrote:  Negotiations of this magnitude means everyone has to compromise, including ESPN.

No, very often in negotiations of this magnitude, with this many players, somebody pulls the plug and walks away from the table and you keep the status quo.

(12-28-2014 08:52 AM)msm96wolf Wrote:  Next part of the Nuclear Option in College Football. Look for P5 mid-tier coaches to make 3-4 Million and top 8-10 million. Boosters cover much of this money, not the school outright. It won't impact P5 payouts as much as people thinks. It really hurts G5 schools keeping coaches. Who would blame the Memphis coach if offered a P5 job that doubles his salary? This entrenches G5 as stepping stones even further as well as mid-tier P5 schools to larger P5 schools. The Tuberville to Cincy from TT may become a thing of the past.

Yup. Vanderbilt or Indiana or Kansas could FedEx Memphis coach Fuente a $3M a year contract tomorrow, and the main question would be why Fuente was a good hire or not, not whether Fuente was worth the money.

Clay Travis' "dump truck theory" of hiring coaches is coming to pass--drive a dump truck full of money up to their house and make them say "No" to $5M a year, $8M a year, $10M a year. http://www.foxsports.com/college-footbal...nic-112611

The only difference is that, when Travis wrote that at the end of 2011, there were maybe 20 schools who could realistically lay $5M a year on the table. Now pretty much anyone in the P5 can, and a handful of G5 schools are going to figure out how to match. So the price tag for the next head-turning, we're-serious-about-fixing-the-program hire (Nebraska? Florida? Texas? Tennesee?) is $10M a year.

(12-28-2014 08:18 AM)goofus Wrote:  Sometimes I think the Ivy league has the right idea. Get rid of athletic scholarships, only play 10 games. Be done by Thanksgiving and skip the playoffs. Leave the million dollar contracts to the NFL.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and Michigan is not going to rewind the clock, but it would have been interesting if 35 years ago if the BigTen just said, thats it, we are getting out of the million dollar sports business.

I don't think us Iowa guys have anything to say negatively about this. Iowa is just as responsible. It seems like ages ago that Ferentz was signed but when he was, he was like the fourth highest paid head coach in the country.

(12-28-2014 09:44 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 02:59 AM)He1nousOne Wrote:  Negotiations of this magnitude means everyone has to compromise, including ESPN.

No, very often in negotiations of this magnitude, with this many players, somebody pulls the plug and walks away from the table and you keep the status quo.

Oh you sound so very hopeful. That might normally be the case but....when there is this amount of money on the table, people don't walk away from that table. They just argue and bicker for awhile until they are all worn out. Then they negotiate. They don't walk away from the money.

(12-28-2014 11:38 AM)He1nousOne Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 08:18 AM)goofus Wrote:  Sometimes I think the Ivy league has the right idea. Get rid of athletic scholarships, only play 10 games. Be done by Thanksgiving and skip the playoffs. Leave the million dollar contracts to the NFL.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and Michigan is not going to rewind the clock, but it would have been interesting if 35 years ago if the BigTen just said, thats it, we are getting out of the million dollar sports business.

I don't think us Iowa guys have anything to say negatively about this. Iowa is just as responsible. It seems like ages ago that Ferentz was signed but when he was, he was like the fourth highest paid head coach in the country.

Agree. Iowa helped grow this monster by giving Ferentz one of those monster contracts 10 years ago.

But the real point of no return was when the BigTen formed its own tv network. Ever since then, I can not tell if the BigTen is a TV network or an athletic conference.

This seems like a good thread to bring up a new "prediction" in regards to this subject. There is a certain quarterback that is currently playing in the NFL. I consider myself a fan of this player but not the team in general. This player has been absolutely dominant for years but this year it has been clearly visible that he is having a serious drop off in the capability of his arm. It is not just talk, the guy throws ducks and has relied upon his receivers to make major adjustments to the ball.

I think most, if not all of you, know exactly who I am talking about. With this kind of money being tossed around at coaches, he would definitely be worth it just in name recognition alone.

Here is the prediction. I think he will follow a path similar to what Urban Meyer did. He will take a year to relax and enjoy just sitting in a chair and talking. Hello ESPN.

He is one of the most competitive players in the game though, he wont be able to stay away. He can take that year or so to figure out what kind of offense he would want to run. I wonder, how solid is the Offensive Coordinator position at Tennessee? Being in that position would make him be the heir apparent. He is that big of a deal and Tennessee could really use that kind of a lightning rod there. They need something to light up their brand again. I highly doubt that Manning cant run an offense, he has been running his own play calling on the field for years.

I cant see him wanting to coach at the NFL level for awhile. His competitive nature would make it hard to agree to stand on the sidelines and watch guys that he was just playing against.


So, who do you folks think might look to break into this new paradigm of huge money for coaches in college?

(12-28-2014 08:18 AM)goofus Wrote:  Sometimes I think the Ivy league has the right idea. Get rid of athletic scholarships, only play 10 games. Be done by Thanksgiving and skip the playoffs. Leave the million dollar contracts to the NFL.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and Michigan is not going to rewind the clock, but it would have been interesting if 35 years ago if the BigTen just said, thats it, we are getting out of the million dollar sports business.

The P5 schools are going to milk the system as long as they can. I'd love to see them get really greedy and cut the number of schools down to 32, thinking they'll have a mini-NFL.

At that point, it becomes a joke.

(12-28-2014 12:35 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 08:18 AM)goofus Wrote:  Sometimes I think the Ivy league has the right idea. Get rid of athletic scholarships, only play 10 games. Be done by Thanksgiving and skip the playoffs. Leave the million dollar contracts to the NFL.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and Michigan is not going to rewind the clock, but it would have been interesting if 35 years ago if the BigTen just said, thats it, we are getting out of the million dollar sports business.

The P5 schools are going to milk the system as long as they can. I'd love to see them get really greedy and cut the number of schools down to 32, thinking they'll have a mini-NFL.

At that point, it becomes a joke.

Of course YOU would love to see that. You have watched your conference get shredded to pieces by mostly the ACC and to a lesser degree, The Big Ten. I consider the Penn State addition part of the issue for folks like you. Despite them never being part of The Big East, Big East folks always thought they should have been in it.

So I am sorry, I get your frustration, but tossing out ridiculous ideas such as this as if they have any chance of occurring? Come on now.

People say these Universities are losing track of what they are. No, they aren't. The Presidents deal with bigger money issues than football money. That is why the Presidents are handing over the reins to the Athletic Directors. They have bigger problems to deal with.

The Presidents are generally conservative in their decision making. For them to approve something as massively drastic as this little idea of yours? Not happening. They are having problems with the next step, what you are talking about would be decades away.

(12-28-2014 12:47 PM)He1nousOne Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 12:35 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 08:18 AM)goofus Wrote:  Sometimes I think the Ivy league has the right idea. Get rid of athletic scholarships, only play 10 games. Be done by Thanksgiving and skip the playoffs. Leave the million dollar contracts to the NFL.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and Michigan is not going to rewind the clock, but it would have been interesting if 35 years ago if the BigTen just said, thats it, we are getting out of the million dollar sports business.

The P5 schools are going to milk the system as long as they can. I'd love to see them get really greedy and cut the number of schools down to 32, thinking they'll have a mini-NFL.

At that point, it becomes a joke.

Of course YOU would love to see that. You have watched your conference get shredded to pieces by mostly the ACC and to a lesser degree, The Big Ten. I consider the Penn State addition part of the issue for folks like you. Despite them never being part of The Big East, Big East folks always thought they should have been in it.

So I am sorry, I get your frustration, but tossing out ridiculous ideas such as this as if they have any chance of occurring? Come on now.

People say these Universities are losing track of what they are. No, they aren't. The Presidents deal with bigger money issues than football money. That is why the Presidents are handing over the reins to the Athletic Directors. They have bigger problems to deal with.

The Presidents are generally conservative in their decision making. For them to approve something as massively drastic as this little idea of yours? Not happening. They are having problems with the next step, what you are talking about would be decades away.

You're just mad that his dumb "shave college football down to 32 teams" apocalyptic fantasy is overtaking your 4x16 apocalyptic fantasy.

Just wait 'til I blow all your minds with my idea for a national 24-team 4-division conference, splitting away from everybody. No, wait, 20 teams.

(12-28-2014 01:02 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 12:47 PM)He1nousOne Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 12:35 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  

(12-28-2014 08:18 AM)goofus Wrote:  Sometimes I think the Ivy league has the right idea. Get rid of athletic scholarships, only play 10 games. Be done by Thanksgiving and skip the playoffs. Leave the million dollar contracts to the NFL.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and Michigan is not going to rewind the clock, but it would have been interesting if 35 years ago if the BigTen just said, thats it, we are getting out of the million dollar sports business.

The P5 schools are going to milk the system as long as they can. I'd love to see them get really greedy and cut the number of schools down to 32, thinking they'll have a mini-NFL.

At that point, it becomes a joke.

Of course YOU would love to see that. You have watched your conference get shredded to pieces by mostly the ACC and to a lesser degree, The Big Ten. I consider the Penn State addition part of the issue for folks like you. Despite them never being part of The Big East, Big East folks always thought they should have been in it.

So I am sorry, I get your frustration, but tossing out ridiculous ideas such as this as if they have any chance of occurring? Come on now.

People say these Universities are losing track of what they are. No, they aren't. The Presidents deal with bigger money issues than football money. That is why the Presidents are handing over the reins to the Athletic Directors. They have bigger problems to deal with.

The Presidents are generally conservative in their decision making. For them to approve something as massively drastic as this little idea of yours? Not happening. They are having problems with the next step, what you are talking about would be decades away.

You're just mad that his dumb "shave college football down to 32 teams" apocalyptic fantasy is overtaking your 4x16 apocalyptic fantasy.

Just wait 'til I blow all your minds with my idea for a national 24-team 4-division conference, splitting away from everybody. No, wait, 20 teams.

Mad? Overtaking? Come on mr. moderator, you can troll better than that.