MONEY, BASKETBALL AND AMATEUR STATUS: The current hubbub about paying college football and basketball players is extremely interesting although I think there are more than two solutions (paying or not paying) them. Certainly the difference between what the players earn (a scholarship) and what the coaches and staff earns is disgusting. Coaches get as much as four million for college basketball I notice, and the largest salary paid by government in 39 of 50 states is paid to football and basketball coaches. In NM, I’ve heard it’s the football coach, not the basketball coach. But thats not all the salaried folks. When I was worked as a student at UNM for sports information director George McFadden (who graduated to the San Francisco 49ers), I was making something like 75 cents and an hour for 10 hours a week and I was his ONLY helper aside from his secretary. Today the Lobo sports information staff (called “communications”) numbers nine people, starting with and assistant AD/Communications, men’s basketball and women’s soccer, an assistant director, football and men’s golf, an assistant director, volleyballball, skiing, softball -- you get the idea -- nine in all, which includes three student assistants. Remember these are just “flacks” in the vernacular, people who keep stats and work with media. Add in nine administrators, including a vice president for athletics, Paul Krebs, a deputy athletic director, etc., etc. There are 11 administrators. In all there are more than 200 people listed in some 40 different sports categories such as women’s golf (2), marketing and revenue generation (2), skiing (3), men’s soccer (4) and on and on, including 96 in red letters which mean they are in the New Mexico staff directory and apparently are paid a salary as opposed to students whose pay likely comes from other sources. Seven of those marked in red are listed in the “Training Room-Team Doctors” category. I am not complaining about this -- every major college has a similar list -- some not so long, some much longer. Eastern NM University, for example, has 55. One coaches rodeo.. My point is that several of these folks must be the $100,000 range while dozens are probably making over $30,000 (guessimate) while players get only a scholarship, although as we all know, from at least the 1960s, players took perks under the table, sporty cars being a top item. It is certainly something to ponder, but it starts with the coaches who make more than the governors, in 39 states. When Warren Woodson led NMSU Aggies to an 11-0 record and the Sun Bowl in the 1950s, he was also athletic director and made $10,000. Bob King started at UNM as head coach in 1962 for $13,000 if I recall. Inflation hasn’t gone up from $13,000 to $4 million over that time span. Not by a long shot. And King brought in as many fans as recent coach Alford did per game. Comments? Note: It is easy to find these statistics from any college. You can almost always google them by this formula: University of New Mexico athletics, staff directory. To find out the salary of each individual is a little harder, but each university in New Mexico at least is required to list staff salaries not only related to sports but every department. Major college lists are in the thousands.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 18:55:41 +0000
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