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Lots Of Dough Involved In Athletics
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Big-time Coaches And ADs Are Making Their Share
When Emory Bollard was eased out the door at Mississippi State recently, Bulldog supporters greased the steps with a check for $125,000.
Why $125,000 to buy out the one remaining year of a contract calling for a base salary of just $63,000 per year?
Credit former Georgia Tech coach Pepper Rodgers. When Rodgers lost his job, he successfully sued for fringe benefit monies he said went with coaching the Engineers. Since that time college athletic departments have realized firing a coach costs the whole loaf, not just a few slices.
In Bellard's case the loaf included his $63,000 salary, $45,000 a year for radio and TV shows, a car and, finally, the use of a $250,000 house owned and cared for by the university.
Obviously, Bellard got his full $63,000 plus the $45,000 plus $17,000 in lieu of the house and car.
Stan Torgerson
Cats' Pause Columnist
Johnny Majors        Emory Bellard
The athletic department produces the TV show, sends a representative out to visit stations and buy the time, tries to sell local loyal alumni businessmen to sponser, but when all is said and done, sending camera crews to games, putting the show together, buying the time and then paying the coach four or five thousand per week, means that in most cases costs are substantially higher than the money recaptured. That matters not. The coach's piece of the action is guaranteed and the athletic department pays out whatever extra is needed.
Another source of income is a shoe deal, particulary in basketball. Kentucky people say that Eddie Sutton's arrangement with Nike is worth 5125,000 per year.
Nike and Converse, the two biggies in the shoe business, knock themselves out to cultivate college coaches. In just the past two years there have been all expense paid trips to Japan and Hawaii offered head basketball coaches and their wives. It isn't cash, but it's not a bad way to spend part of the off-season, either.
In addition, there are always big money supporters who want to be on a first name basis and who have business opportunities to offer. There are deals at stores, endorsements, a car provided by the school or its backers, a virtually unlimited expense account, bonuses for going to bowl games and one of the biggest money makers of all. on-campus summer football and basketball camps.
Add it all up and it's doubtful if any SEC head football coach takes less than $150,000 per year or, in basketball, less than $100,000. Possible, but doubtful. Most of them make a great deal more, as much as double those amounts, and even that estimate may be low.
It reminds me of a sheriff I once knew in Wisconsin.
"Stan", he said one night, "if I can get reelected to another term, I'll never have to work again as long as I live."
It has been suggested that excessive rewards for coaches is the prime problem in college sports. Jack V. Doland, former football coach at McNeese State and now president of the Lake Charles Louisiana school, proposes to limit coaching salaries to the same level as vice presidents and deans. He'd put a $1,000 limit on the coaches' take from TV. eliminate shoe deals and prohibit free use of school facilities for personal gain. That means summer football and basketball camps.
"In all but a few cases the institution is the reason the coach is famous", says Doland. "If they changed coaches at Oklahoma, Ohio State or Notre Dame, the new coach would become famous."
Sounds fine, but does anyone seriously believe that a coach who has founL way to give an 18-year old recruit something more than board, room, books and tuition, couldn't find a way to get something under the table for himself?
The fact is that coaching is a high risk business and until schools decide to honor contracts to their written end dates, coaches are entitled to get while the getting is good. Today's head coach is tomorrow's unemployed person.
Ask Emory Bellard!
NOT FOR BROADCAST: This year's Alabama-Auburn game ranks right up there with the Tennessee-UCLA 37-34 battle of 1965 and the Ole Mlss-Alabam a 33-32 affair of 1969 as the most exciting games we have ever seen.......Only Ray Mears. former Tennessee basketball coach and now athletic director at the University of Tennessee-Martin, could think of this. Mears, whose former assistant, the late Stu Aberdeen once wrote a book called "The Winning Edge", awards a gold basketball, football or cheerleader megaphone, plus a certificate in "The Pacers Club" to every newborn enfant in Martin, Tennessee. "We want to get them started on UT-Martin before anybody else has a chance," says Mears. He'll
have to wait 18 years to see if he gets a return on his investment.......Six-foot-six, 275-pound
offensive lineman Will Wolford of Vanderbilt, considered a cinch high pro draft choice: "It's hard not to think about the pros because I'm always getting calls from agents trying to tell me how great I am. I'm looking forward to the challenge, but right now I just sleep
through the pro games on Sunday".......Johnny Majors, whose Tennessee team is heading
for New Orleans, ended both his playing career and his Pittsburgh coaching career in the Sugar Bowl. He lost as a player and won as a coach, 13-7 to Baylor in 1957 and 27-3 over
Georgia in 1977.......The last word. Understatment of the year. Alabama Coach Ray
Perkins after the lead changed hands four times in the last seven minutes against Auburn with the Tide winning 25-23 on a field goal as time ran out. "It was a little hectic."
The man may not have turned out a winner for the Bulldogs, but he certainly did alright by of Emory.
But then it's hard not to do alright if you can get one of the big jobs in college football, coach or athletic director.
Public records in Alabama show the Tide's Ray Perkins gets $120,000 per year in state money. Pat Dye at Auburn is paid $90,000 up front, but there is no listing of how much either man makes on the side. No one doubts that it is considerable.
While there have been few public releases of A.D. income in the Southeastern Conference, it is interesting to note that in the Southwest Conference De Loss Dodds, director of athletics at the University of Texas, will get a $50,000 bonus next year, pushing his earnings to $147,875. That's more than the new school president will probably make.
*One of the first names proposed for Bellard's job was Bobby Collins of SMU. Collins would be tough to hire. He currently earns $250,000 per year with a five-year contract.
Another suggestion was Bill Dooley, Virginia Tech's coach and athletic director. Dooley is making an $80,000 salary plus another $85,000 from radio and TV.
Even at independant Memphis State, newly released coach Ray Dempsey was guaranteed $50,000 salary plus $40,000 for radio and TV, plus whatever.
It's easy to understand cheating in college athletics. Some coaches cheat to win because winning means you can keep your job and your job is pretty darn good.
Most schools are sensitive to a charge that football coaches make more money than school presidents. That's why salaries are usually listed in the $60,000 range. It keeps the professors quiet. But, as we said, the salary is only the tip of a coach's financial iceberg.
Don't think for a minute that the radio or TV money is contingent upon finding sponsers willing to pay the bill. Many schools simply use that angle to get around a charge of putting athletics above academics.
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Will Wolford