Coaches' Perks May Be Deal Breaker
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN
Courant Staff Writer
May 26 2005
UConn's million-dollar basketball coaches might leave the school - or demand millions more from the state - if the ethics commission shuts down their lucrative deals with Nike and other companies, their agents say.
Men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun "could be forced to find employment elsewhere" if the commission revises the so-called celebrity exception that allows Calhoun and other coaches to subsidize their state salaries, according to Jeff Schwartz, Calhoun's agent. "At best," Schwartz wrote in a letter to the ethics commission, "the University of Connecticut would have to make up the difference which will cost the University significantly more."
Likewise, Solomon Kerensky, who represents women's coach Geno Auriemma, said that if coaches are banned from holding outside contracts, "there is a very likely possibility that they will leave the University of Connecticut to coach at a school that will continue to allow them to enter into such contracts."
Keeping the coaches - by keeping them well-compensated - was a central theme of most of the nearly 20 statements submitted after the commission invited comments on its decision to rethink the ethics rules covering prominent state employees. For the past decade, the commission has allowed a handful of well-known employees to cash in on their celebrity, so long as their endorsements and advertisements made no specific mention of their state jobs.
Earlier this year, Gov. M Jodi Rell called on the commission to review the practice, following revelations that a prior commission had approved at least three outside contracts that appeared to violate state ethics laws. At the time, Rell said she was not criticizing the coaches' endorsement contracts but was only seeking to determine whether the rules for outside compensation should be clarified.
UConn's coaches have fervently guarded the amounts they earn from outside deals. But other top college coaches earn from $250,000 to $500,000 a year under university contracts with Nike. In addition to apparel contracts, UConn coaches in various sports have held side contracts with banks, beverage companies, car dealerships and a phone company. Coaches are also permitted to run off-season sports camps. All of the income from those activities is in addition to their state salaries.
Terence Prince, director of legal affairs for IMG Team Sports, which handles football coach Randy Edsall's business dealings, echoed representatives for Calhoun and Auriemma in urging the commission to keep the status quo. Prince said Edsall accepted his job at UConn with the understanding that he could supplement his income through pre-approved outside deals. "To remove this opportunity from Coach Edsall and the other State coaches would be akin to moving the goal posts when the kicker is trying to kick a field goal," Prince wrote.
Prince also warned against changing rules that allow nonprofit organizations to pay for meals and rounds of golf when celebrities participate in fundraising dinners and charity golf tournaments. If prominent state employees were required to pay to attend charitable events at which they are featured, "Coach Edsall and others would be forced to curtail (almost to the point of elimination) these charitable works."
Prince wrote that he believed a change in the rules would make Connecticut the only state in the nation that banned outside deals for university coaches - a distinction that would make UConn an undesirable choice for top coaching prospects.
"Connecticut would then have to make a very difficult decision: Either accept the fact that the state will only have available to it second and third tier coaches or significantly increase the coaches' base salaries in order to compensate for the loss of income from third party agreements. Given the current and foreseeable State budget constraints, it is highly unlikely that the taxpayers would agree to a doubling or tripling of the coaches' salaries," he wrote.
Ironically, Edsall's salary did triple this year, under a new contract that increased his pay from about $200,000 to nearly $700,000. His old contract stipulated that when UConn's football program joined the Big East conference, Edsall's salary would be increased to a level commensurate with other Big East coaches.
Calhoun and Auriemma also signed new contracts this past school year. Calhoun - the state's highest-paid employee - receives $1.4 million, plus a country-club membership and other perks. Auriemma, the highest-paid women's basketball coach in the nation, earns $825,000 under a contract that will put him over the $1 million mark in the 2007-08 school year.
Average citizens also chimed in on the debate, with several expressing concern that the ethics commission was overreacting to the ethical lapses in the administration of former Gov. John G. Rowland.
"While I agree that there is always a constant need for regulation and the prevention of another John Rowland situation, putting a match out with a fire hose doesn't seem to be the solution," wrote Brian Mylod of New York, a Hartford native who attended Georgetown but whose "heart will forever be with the HUSKIES."
Others said the celebrity exception left them with a bad taste. "It is an insult to the State, its employees and to the rest of us, to have a different set of ethical standards apply to `celebrities' as opposed to `non-celebrities,'" wrote Dan Lahn, a 1954 UConn graduate from West Hartford. "What kind of example does this set for students at UConn and elsewhere? The `celebrities' are very well paid but they have exhibited greedy behavior and over time this behavior will contribute to a loss of faith in State Government, UConn and the Ethics Commission itself."
Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant
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