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More Money, Less Personal - Dec 13, 2006 | 13:23:15
posted by: Josh
I think there???s something special about the fact that my college baseball coach has spent 25 years at the same school. I love that Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden have become synonymous with Penn State and Florida State. Unfortunately, these long marriages may be a thing of the past. As coaches??? salaries increase and expectations reach unprecedented levels, it seems unrealistic to assume that college coaches will spend the majority of their careers in one place. Successful coaches find more lucrative deals and unsuccessful coaches find themselves out of a job faster than ever before, even if they have time left on their contracts. I admit I???m an idealist. I never wanted to deal with a coaching change and I???m glad I didn???t have to go through that. I???ve said before that escalating salaries seem to go against the spirit of intercollegiate athletics. I???d rather see schools spend the extra dollars on the academic side of things or invest more money in the coaches of non-revenue sports. Earlier this week, Dennis Erickson left Idaho after a one-year stint for the brighter football lights at Arizona State. I don???t begrudge Erickson his move, but his players certainly seemed hurt. There???s not much we can do to keep coaches from moving around ??? it???s their right and choice. It???s just unfortunate that it???s become such a business decision. I think of my college coach as the patriarch of our large family. It seems that fewer student-athletes will have an opportunity to experience that as salaries rise and coaches bounce around the country. 
CommentsOf course a post about coaches??? salaries, I will comment but I do really feel the same way about how it is very unfortunate for any student-athlete to deal with coaching changes. You get recruited by this person and you really get to know them and then they are gone. It is sometimes hard to deal with but I do think 18-22 year olds do a good job of handling it for the most part. Student-athletes in the recruiting process should choose a school for the school first. They get in trouble when they are completely swayed by a coach solely because of coaching changes not just by them moving up but also getting fired and not to mention the carousel of assistant coaches. It's a tough profession because of all the moving but it is the only way for coaches to advance their career many times. The thing is, these jobs are in the media so you see the change but I bet if you look around you in your company you would see tremendous change also. It's just natural but for coaches and athletics in general it has a media demand because people are interested. At the same time, Greg Schiano is turning down Miami and Rich Rodriguez is spurning Alabama. I know the players at Idaho are taking Dennis Erickson's departure personally, but come on. You couldn't really have expected a vagabond of his nature to stay in Moscow, Idaho, for very long, could you? I wouldn't blame short-tenured coaches on salaries getting out of hand. Instead, I'd blame short-sighted athletic administrations such as Alabama's that have such a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitude. Post a Comment |
  
It means that two very good teams with very good coaches made it to the final game.
- Marie
   
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