Evidence of Deep Craziness: A Thread by Dale Wisely

[Dale]

The University of Alabama has hired a new head football coach and agreed to pay him $4,000,000 per year. Maybe more, based on performance.

Perhaps you have a hard time imagining how much money $4,000,000 is. As you know, I have a special interest in trying to come up with ways to grasp large numbers like that. So, suppose each "i" is one million dollars. Here's what $4,000,000 looks like:

iiii

You're welcome.

P.S. With all due respect to coaches everywhere:

He's a COACH. He's a FOOTBALL COACH. A COACH. He's a COACH.

[gonzo914]

I think this should be moved to the Policocon forum. There are folks over there who are getting their panties all in a knot because a bus driver in Pittsburgh can make 70K a year. Four million ought to make them hemorrhage. But it may be OK if the coach isn't union.

[jsluder]

I've given up trying to understand why people are willing to spend so much money on sports. Of course, I've also given up trying to understand people.

[missy]

ah, Dale, you should come to Ohio. Here's it's HIGHSCHOOL coaches that are G_d!!

Seriously, one of the local high school football coaches (that has won state 3 of the past 5 years) left to become an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati - and you would have think someone had DIED!

This same coach had so much clout at the school that he's managed to get the last 3 superintendants - ah - asked to resign (read: fired).

When another school here won state, the alumni bought every single player a ring that rivals Superbowl rings! Diamonds and everything!

It's totally insane.

[Bloomfield]

P.S. With all due respect to coaches everywhere:

He's a COACH. He's a FOOTBALL COACH. A COACH. He's a COACH.

What I want to scream is:

It's a UNIVERSITY. A Institution of HIGHER learning. A UNIVERSITY. You know: like, BOOKS.

[Congratulations]

So this is what capitalism smells like?

My school doesn't have a football team.

[jim stone]

A winning football team is worth its weight in gold
to a university, in donations from alumni,
ticket sales, and so on. Much of the money goes
for paying faculty, new buildings, library books,
and so on.

[Walden]

The University of Alabama has hired a new head football coach and agreed to pay him $4,000,000 per year. Maybe more, based on performance.

Perhaps you have a hard time imagining how much money $4,000,000 is. As you know, I have a special interest in trying to come up with ways to grasp large numbers like that. So, suppose each "i" is one million dollars. Here's what $4,000,000 looks like:

iiii

You're welcome.

P.S. With all due respect to coaches everywhere:

He's a COACH. He's a FOOTBALL COACH. A COACH. He's a COACH.

Well, look at it this way. Any team that gets beat in a bowl game by Oklahoma State has gotta be pretty desperate.

[Dale]

A winning football team is worth its weight in gold
to a university, in donations from alumni,
ticket sales, and so on. Much of the money goes
for paying faculty, new buildings, library books,
and so on.

I hear you. But,

$4,000,000 a year. A coach. He's a coach.

[TonyHiggins]

$4,000,000 a year. A coach. He's a coach.

Ie, he's a meal ticket for the school, or at least perceived that way. How much does Maury Povich make? For what?
Tony

[chas]

P.S. With all due respect to coaches everywhere:

He's a COACH. He's a FOOTBALL COACH. A COACH. He's a COACH.

What I want to scream is:

It's a UNIVERSITY. A Institution of HIGHER learning. A UNIVERSITY. You know: like, BOOKS.

When I was in graduate school, my advisor was supposedly the highest-paid employee of the university (and the state gov't for that matter). Of course, the football and basketball coaches made more money, but most of that was from the boosters -- donors, etc. It's not been until comparatively recently that the universities themselves have ponied up for the coaches.

I can't say I liked things the way they were, slipping on vomit when I ran on Sunday mornings and such, but 4 million for a football coach is, like, roughly a thousand dollars apiece in tuition for the entering freshmen at the University of Alabama.

[Redwolf]

A winning football team is worth its weight in gold
to a university, in donations from alumni,
ticket sales, and so on. Much of the money goes
for paying faculty, new buildings, library books,
and so on.

You know, it doesn't really work that way, though. The people who donate based on sports performance tend to donate FOR sports...the money gets earmarked for expanded sports facilities, uniforms, free-ride scholarships for athletes, etc.

My college had a football team, but didn't offer sports scholarships, and paid the coach a salary similar to what the rest of the faculty made. It has no trouble getting alumni to pony up for libraries, books, etc....because that's why we WENT to that school. People tend to pay for what they value, and people who value sports enough to support paying a coach $4 mil. typically aren't out there funding libraries and science labs.

What's really horrifying is the fact that your average full professor at a state university barely makes a living wage.

Redwolf

[dubhlinn]

The GAME..The GAME..

You Intellectuals just don't see the game

"Football isn't a matter of life and death - its much more important than that!"

Bill Shankly.

Different game..same rules..same values.


Slan,
D.

[cowtime]

I've never understood the draw of football. Just never did. I use to like to go to basketball games, but not watch on TV.

I went to one VA Tech game when my daugher was up there. We had fun before the game and after the game. Everyone else had fun during the game. Not me. Standing up (everyone stood up during the whole game, crammed into the stadium, drunks on the left, drunks on the right, drunks everywhere screaming... Just don't get it. Come to think of it, it's a lot like NASCAR racing was way back when, except you'd have to add getting hit in the head by knawed chicken legs being thrown down on the lower seats to make a proper comparison between the two(that was not much fun either).

The money paid sports figures and coaches, etc. is mind boggling and some deep comment on our society I suppose.

[peeplj]

I share the sense of outrage.

There is no way a coach returns enough value to any segment of society to be worth $1 million, much less four times that.

As for the "game," I'm one of those folks who think society just might be better off without that, too.

--James

P.S. On re-reading my post, I have decided not to edit it, but to note here that, because of recent events, I am probably currently less tactful that is my usual baseline. For instance, under normal circumstances, I would never call football a mechanism by which society distracts the ignorant masses.