[pachyderm]

The governor of Virginia has a salary of $166,000:

http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/...ernment_salary

The head basketball coach at George Mason University (in Virginia) has a salary of $659,750:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2...rs-ar-1512220/

[beauflow]

what's your point? sorry for the sarcasm

[di meliora]

"I know, but I had a better year than (President Herbert) Hoover." - 1930 Babe Ruth response to his salary of $80,000 being more than the President's $75,000

[pachyderm]

Originally Posted by beauflow

what's your point? sorry for the sarcasm

They are both state employees.

hmmm wonder who approved the salary of the coach and what the academic staff earn

[Travelinglady]

I've heard that Coach K (head basketball coach) at Duke makes a higher salary than ANYONE else who works at the school. Come on, now. Where ARE our priorities?

[CastlesInTheAir]

they could use that money to put towards schlorships for college peeps who need it....or the school help schools and they could lend a hand to thier local high schools....but what do I know, i just live here

[beauflow]

Originally Posted by triciadrich

they could use that money to put towards schlorships for college peeps who need it....or the school help schools and they could lend a hand to thier local high schools....but what do I know, i just live here

I so agree with that-- but idk, I do agree-- Priorities do seem to be askew a little when it comes down to money, where to spend it, who gets more, and what not.... but i am not much in this world-- just a thinker and a dreamer.

[Timgt5]

Originally Posted by PAYNE1

I've heard that Coach K (head basketball coach) at Duke makes a higher salary than ANYONE else who works at the school. Come on, now. Where ARE our priorities?

Coach K makes what he makes because of his exceptional performance. He is likely within the next year or so to become the winingest coach in college basketball history.

Because of his success, the men's basketball program generates millions of dollars in revenue for the school every year, so for Duke he is a worthwhile investment that could not easily be replaced.

Duke is also a private university, basically its an "Ivy league" level school that happens to be in the south.

[Timgt5]

Originally Posted by pachyderm

The governor of Virginia has a salary of $166,000:

http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/...ernment_salary

The head basketball coach at George Mason University (in Virginia) has a salary of $659,750:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2...rs-ar-1512220/

The coach is a better negotiator

That being said, college is becoming a huge scam. Much like the housing bubble, society has become too obsessed with sending every kid to a university when in many cases that line of education is waste of their time. As a result we keep finding ways to subsidize education, which for universities has become a gravey train to build lavish facillities and pay ever higher salaries to its staff.

For many schools sports, especially men's football and basketball, are very prestigious and a big source of revenue. Hench head coaches, of these programs, especially successful ones can command very high salaries.

In the end the reason that the coaches make so much, is the fault of the fans, who watch the games on cable, buy tickets and merchandise along with products advertised during the game.

Unfortunately the governor does not have his own line of T-shirts, banners, etc...

[pachyderm]

Originally Posted by Timgt5

Coach K makes what he makes because of his exceptional performance. He is likely within the next year or so to become the winingest coach in college basketball history.

Because of his success, the men's basketball program generates millions of dollars in revenue for the school every year, so for Duke he is a worthwhile investment that could not easily be replaced.

Yes, I agree that there is some merit in that argument. The drawbacks can be seen from the Penn State case.

[di meliora]

Sports no longer is a part of learning values and building character. It is simply a source of revenue. It was not that long ago when Tom Osborne at Nebraska egregiously protected players from the law. Eventually, Osborne could of held practice in the prison yard.

The presidents go along for the money. Integrity gives way to expediency. Hypocrisy is getting to be the norm.

[Travelinglady]

I admit to having some anger toward basketball teams in particular. Dang that James Naismith for hanging that peach basket up and starting this game. The basket is now ten feet off the floor. And so the best players are generally tall people--at least close to six feet. Why should they get all the scholarships and the chances to play at a professional level where they rake in the megabucks?

As for Duke, I got my graduate degree there. And I even walked across campus beside the tallest player on the team--Mike Giminsky--one time (in the late 1970's). Yes, b-ball brings in a lot of money and frankly it's one of the main reasons Duke is so well known. But should schools be mainly about sports? Where's the emphasis on academics? Believe me, college professors generally don't earn megabucks. I was one!

Yes, the Penn State case is an example of how sports were put above the lives of young boys, who will be permanently scarred because no one wanted to give the football team bad publicity. And other schools such as UNC-Chapel Hill have gotten into trouble for doing things like signing up their players for easy, specially-made classes and having a tutor who did some of their work for them.

[Perna]

So, more people go to University because of the good sports teams than want to work or work very hard for State Government (obviously, I was born in Virginia and had to get my birth certificate to get a passport and they decided both my parents, who were born in Tacoma, Washington, were born in the District of Columbia; good school system, Virginia's! Been there too, went from 7th grade in Virginia Beach, VA where I was rehashing how to add and subtract fractions to California where they decided I needed to learn bases 7-12 (skipping 10) (Yale University SMSG program: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah...cah-00284.html).

[Timgt5]

Originally Posted by pachyderm

Yes, I agree that there is some merit in that argument. The drawbacks can be seen from the Penn State case.

I agree fully, comes back to the quality of the schppl's administration.

Anything that involves significant amounts of money, power or both is prone to corruption and people looking the other way.

UNC-CH where I went, is also one of the most prestigious basketball programs in the country and has always maintained very clean, above board program as does coach K and the Duke Administration. Players on both teams have to follow some rather strict academic standards in order to be allowed on the court.

[Travelinglady]

I'm not sure that kids pick a school just because of its sports program, although good players do want to be accepted into the schools with the best teams.

And, of course, not all students will be playing on sports teams. But good programs do tend to make schools more well known. For example, how many of you have heard of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia? It has even been called the "Harvard of the South" and ranks very highly in its academics, such as in the U.S. News and World Report. When it was established, the decision was made NOT to have a big school sports program. So, it's not in The ACC, etc. Yet I'd put its academics and offerings against Duke and many Ivy League Schools.

"The Ivy League," by the way, actually refers to a bunch of schools who play each other in sports, like the Atlantic Coast Conference is a bunch of schools who play each other.

Yes, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill hold their players to higher standards, but I bet you that some of them would not have been accepted had they not been selected for ball teams. I know ball players at some prestigious schools don't have to have as high GPAs and SAT scores as the general population of applicants. And look at what these folks tend to major in....

[eskielover]

And look at what these folks tend to major in....

BASKETWEAVING (JJ).....but seriously, nothing that takes much ability like Engineering or Computer Science....but their goal is usually to become professionals in the sport they are there for.....so their sport is really their major.

[Travelinglady]

True, Eskie. Sad to say, however, very few college ball players ever make it into the pros.

Oh, of all things, I got a call from a student from my undergraduate school (Radford) tonight. She proceeded to tell me how well the school's teams were doing and then asked me if I would be willing to contribute to the athletic program to help the players. Guess what my answer was?!

[lonegael]

Well, to defend the undergrad system, I learned hugely from the history and political science classes I took. They lead me to examine people and their motives diferently and to see the limits in the explanations they offered. Thrue, I never became a German teacher, but I learned about the identity problems that come from dislocation, war, and how historically difficult it is to heal after your life has been pulled cataclysmically apart (regardless of utlimate responsiblility). I have found that to be utterly vital knowledge to the work I am doing now, half a world away, with children who never heard of the Holocaust, for example. Most mental health workers here don't get that breadth of education.

[Travelinglady]

I agree. I have no problem with undergraduate programs in general. It's just that when it comes to "priorities," some schools seems to put too much emphasis on sports programs, I fear to the detriment of actual academic classes!

[lonegael]

Amen to that. They mistake the money pulling potential of sports to their importance in the big scheme of things. When you consider that most athletes have to retire in their thirties whether they pull the big bucks or not, you'd think that the schools should really think about what comes in "the after life".

[roads]

Everything money is combined with is made more poor by the mix ...
My opinion.
Sports ... Education. Some people connect things with more applomb than others.