on college coaches salaries along with Bob Stoops. At $2.3 million a year and climbing the elite teams will keep up to that level. Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama will do whatever they have to do to pay winning coaches to stay at the top. Vanderbilt is already a sorry excuse for an SEC member and will never pay a coach that much. Ole Miss and Moo U might like to keep up with the big boys but won't be able to afford it. Kentucky would only pay that kind of money to a basketball coach. Same situation in the Big 12, ACC, PAC 10 and Big 10. Schools like Baylor, Wake Forest, California and Northwestern either can't or won't pay those kind of salaries. Sooner or later the big moneymaking schools will get tired of sharing all the bowl and TV revenue with their conference weak sisters. Anybody have any thoughts about what this might lead to? I can see how this might lead to a situation where the big time football powers might want to break away from the NCAA and form a College Football League. At the same time some schools that suck at football have great basketball programs. Duke, Kentucky and Indiana would never be invited to be a part of a super football conference but the football power schools would still want to maintain a basketball relationship with them.
Most of the schools in Division I do not have the stadium size or the sell-out attendance that it takes to pull in major cash. Only the forty or so programs that can do it will be paying top dollar to head coaches. There may be an informal layering within each conference. In the SEC, Vanderbilt, State, and Ole Miss clearly lack the school size, fan base, big stadium and endowment to pay top dollar. Trouble is, there aren't many coaches that are WORTH top dollar, only a handful. There will be a lot of overpaid coaches who will get only two years to bring home a trophy. No losing at all will be tolerated in a $2 million coach.
Interesting thoughts guys, a new league and some overpaid coaches, sounds like the making of the new XFL:shock: Actually I'd love to see all sports teams break away from the NCAA since I hate them, they have to much power. They might as well be Congress..... Interesting thought about Nick raising the bar and the schools that can't and won't pay that kind of money vs the one's that will. It almost sounds like an amatuer old time NFL of sorts. You either win year after year or you don't in that scenario. Dynasty:lsug: :lsug: :geaux: :geaux:
I don't know if I like the idea of a "College Football League." You're right, Saban is raising the bar and the football powerhouses will have to do something, but branching off into their own league hardly seems like a reasonable response. I think one of the greatest things about the NCAA is that it is deeply rooted in history. There is so much rich tradition that comes with college football that it would be a shame to get rid of that. I think some changes within the NCAA would be more appropriate. What changes? Well, I don't know. If I did, I may as well run it myself!
If we didn't have these other scholls for the younger guys to go to and get established we wouldn't have any new coaches to choose from. Such as Nick Saban, i.e. Kent State.
The trend over the last decade has been to join a conference. It does provide steady income in down years since bowl money is shared. You might have to give away part of some big paydays, but over time the income is more consistent and can be counted on. If a form of the BCS stays in effect, being in a conference would be advantageous to get in a BCS bowl, unless you are Notre Dame and don't need it.
Articles recently have revealed that very few college athletic programs are money makers, in fact the great majority are money losers. That includes most football programs in Division 1-A. Almost all Division I football programs lose money. A few basketball programs on the highest levels make money, but almost all of the rest lose money for their schools. Virtually every other athletic program, like swimming, track and field, baseball (LSU a notable exception), are all money losers at almost all schools. It is a wonder to me that so many athletic teams in so many different sports are fielded by colleges.
teams That is the main reason that football tickets go up so much and things of that nature as football supports all sports programs at many colleges. Some basketball programs also make money though. And due to title 9 there are actually more women's sports than men at most colleges due to football have 85 schollies. 15 years ago there were fears that even more men's sports would have to be cut because of the cost of the women's programs. We lost 2 men's sports at LSU and throughout the SEC, I believe, wrestling and men's gymnastics. Tilte 9 should be changed but I doubt if too many congressmen would even vote for that much less present the bill to change it. Political suicide.
Good thoughts about this everybody. Schools like Ole Miss, Mississippi State will never be able to compete dollar for dollar with LSU, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, ect in football but they do uphold the conference by sometimes having good basketball and baseball programs. Arkansas couldn't match the Nebraska offer to Houston Nutt but they somehow found a way to keep him. Kentucky usually sucks at football and the UK head coaching job is looked at as a stepping stone to better things by aspiring coaches but UK upholds their SEC membership with their basketball program. Football is the cash cow and you are right, Red about there not being many coaches worth the kind of money that Saban, Stoops, Pete Carroll, Bobby Bowden and very few others make. If Steve Spurrier returns to college football he will command that kind of money. Ohio State's Jim Tressel is probably up there along with Miami's Larry Coker. Texas coach Mack Brown is among the highest paid coaches but his job is on the line. If Spurrier wants that job the Horns would fire Brown in 2 seconds flat. Georgia's Mark Richt and Michigan's Lloyd Carr are almost there as far as becoming elite coaches in the highest paid bracket but to get to the next level they would have to win the National Championship. Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno both make over $2 million per year but that is because of longevity and past accomplishments. Both of them are in their mid 70s and both will be replaced by a younger coach soon. Nebraska's Frank Solich had the Huskers playing in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship in 2001. In 2002 the Huskers fell to 7-7 with an Independence Bowl loss to Ole Miss. This year Nebraska rebounded to 9-3 in the regular season. For that Solich was fired. Bill Callahan coached the Oakland Raiders to the Super bowl last year. This year, mostly because of injuries to the old Raiders's players they had a losing season and Callahan was fired. Nebraska just hired Callahan after being turned down by their first 5 head coaching choices. Because of Nebraska's desperation after being turned down by their first 5 choices Callahan probably got a contract for over $2 million per year. No way that Bill Callahan is going to continue with the traditional Nebraska running offense with a QB who runs for more yards than he passes for like Eric Crouch. Callahan will have to recruit not only quarterbacks who are looking for a college where they can play in a passing oriented offense but he will have to recruit recievers who he can convince they will have the chance ot catch more than a pass or two a game. At this point in time almost all of the highly recruited high school quarterbacks as well as the super dozen recievers have committed to other teams. With no super rated QB coming in will Callahan be able to steal an Xavier Carter from LSU or Florida? No way, Jose. Bill Callahan might be a great coach and he just might be capable of rebuilding Nebraska football back to the level they have enjoyed in the past. Can he do that in 3 or 4 years? No way. Will he be fired before he can do it. Yes. Right now the best coaches in college football are Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll (hate him or not he can coach, at least in college football), Jim Tressel and Larry Coker (give Coker a mulligan for the national championship with Butch Davis's recruits but he almost won another one but for a bad call in the 2002 title game) How many other college coaches are worthy of $2 million + a year? Mark Richt is close if he gets over the hump. Same for Michgan's Lloyd Carr. I can't think of any others. Of course if a college team could somehow lure a Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichek, Dick Vermiel, Tony Dungy or Jon Gruden into coaching their team it would be well worth the $2 million + gamble.
Im very interested in seeing the Husker offense next season, but Im not convinced that Jamal Lord can be a passing QB. I have seen some very nice throws from him, and I thought they ran more pass plays this year than I remember seeing before. I think if you put Lord in a system like LSU's, he would be very successful. Of course, we have way better receivers.
