College football coaches make more than university professors.

Do we need to hand out smelling salts after delivering such shocking news?  Of course not.  Because that news isn’t shocking at all to anyone.

The website InsideHigherEd.com reports on a new study that in part explores the discrepancies between teaching salaries and football coaching salaries.  That study was conducted by three scholars and can be found here.  The slimmed down version in InsideHigherEd.com can be found here.  The title of the report is “Disproportionate Paychecks.”

But we ask, disproportionate in what way?

If salaries were handed out based upon value to society, there’s no question professors should make more than football coaches.  That’s a given.  You’d be hard-pressed to find even a football fan batty enough to argue differently.

But salaries are not handed out based on value to society.  At universities — like most businesses — paychecks are often determined by the amount of money a person helps to create for his employer.  It’s a question of value.  And as the old saying goes, you won’t find 90,000 people showing up on a Saturday to watch a chemistry exam.

Fair?  Certainly not.  Reality?  Yes.

So it should come as no surprise that the site finds that: “Coaches’ salaries increase year after year at much higher rates — even as many colleges say they are engaged in belt-tightening across the board — and that pattern is driven by the institutions with the largest athletic programs.”

But there is a reason we’ve chosen to discuss this topic on a site that covers SEC athletics.  According to InsideHigherEd.com, among all conferences “the SEC saw the highest escalation in football coaching salaries” between 2005 and 2011.  The report states:

“In that conference — home to about a quarter of the nation’s 23 athletic programs where revenues actually outpace expenses — instructional salaries rose 15.5% between 2006 and 2011, from $70,886 to $81,758.  At the same time, football coaching salaries increased 128.9%, from $3,147,149 to $5,928,989.”

Again, everyone should be fully aware that football — on most campuses — is responsible for the huge revenue stream known as television money.  In addition, thanks to many millions of Americans watching college games on television, football has also become the best form of advertising most schools have.  Armed with that knowledge, it doesn’t a university’s board much time to decide who’ll get the biggest salary on campus.

But here’s the key part of the study in our view — The fact that the SEC has the largest gap between football salaries and teaching salaries only furthers the stereotype that Mike Slive’s league is a so-so academic conference.  And that’s a stereotype Slive and the SEC’s presidents have been trying to overcome through the creation of an academic consortium and with the addition of two more AAU schools in Missouri and Texas A&M (bringing the league total to four with Florida and Vanderbilt).

InsiderHigherEd.com provides a chart comparing the salary information from all Division I conferences.  Below we’ll compare just the SEC’s growth numbers (from 2005 to 2011) to those of the other 10 FBS conferences:

Read the rest of this entry »

SEC Football

1. Kentucky defensive back Ashely Lowery, injured in a car wreck over the weekend, is out of ICU and in a regular hospital room. Could be leaving soon. “We’re hoping by the end of the week.”

2. Seth Emerson imagines a nine-game SEC schedule for Georgia where the Bulldogs have only five games in Athens.  ”That would be hard for UGA to stomach.”

3. Mike Bianchi on Florida coach Will Muschamp: “Does Gator Nation realize how much in demand Muschamp is – and will be?”

4. Muschamp on Twitter – why do they call it a hashtag?

5. Kevin Sumlin on expectations for his A&M team.  ”This is a team that didn’t play in a BCS game. It’s a good place to start, but it’s not a good place to end.”

6. Dan Mullen on expectations at Mississippi State. “Eight wins is kind of a baseline for us…”

7. No tight end or primary H-back has caught more than 24 passes with Gus Malzahn as coach.

8. Ole Miss depth chart released – only members of top-10 recruiting class to show up are those already enrolled.

9. Former Arkansas quarterback Brandon Mitchell reportedly considering five schools -   South Florida, NC State, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Northwestern State. Some other schools being mentioned.

10. Tennessee defensive back Daniel Gray is transferring.

11. Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham on Vanderbilt: “They compete and they’re very competitive.”

12. With the North Carolina game set for 2015 in Charlotte – here’s a look at South Carolina’s non-conference schedule for the next three seasons.

13. Opening weekend of the 2013 college football season features both South Carolina/North Carolina and Ole Miss/Vanderbilt on ESPN Thursday night.

14. ESPN’s Chris Low ranks the top 20 SEC prospects for the 2014 NFL draft.

SEC Athletic Department Revenues – (our breakdown from yesterday)

15. Alabama’s athletic department has now generated $100 million + in revenue for five straight years.

16. Auburn cracked the top 10 nationally – school record $105.9 million in 2012.

17. Not included in the numbers for Ole Miss - $11 million in contributions held at the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation.  School will change the way it reports next year.

SEC Basketball

18. Father of Trae Golden disputes notion of academic problems at Tennessee for his son – calls reports “totally inaccurate.”

19. Incoming freshman Darius Thompson expected to get first crack at replacing Golden.  Coach Cuonzo Martin:  ”We feel great about him.” Jordan McRae invited to Kevin Durant Skills Academy.

20. Making the case for a practice facility at Arkansas.

21. Georgia assistant coach Kwanza Johnson still weighing possible move to TCU.

22. Missouri will play in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational in November.

Extras

23. NCAA Study: Gambling among men who play Division I sports fell from 58 percent to 50 percent from 2008 to 2012.

24. Claim: The players in those college football video games?  Oh, they’re real (and spectacular).

25. Does Tim Tebow have a future as a baseball player?

If there were three successful athletic programs that came out of the most recent expansion/realignment quakes worse for the wear, they were all old Big East squads.  Cincinnati has traditionally been good in basketball and the Bearcats have recently played in a BCS bowl.  Connecticut has traditionally been great in basketball and the Huskies have recently played in a BCS bowl.  West Virginia has traditionally been good in basketball and the Mountaineers have recently played in a BCS bowl.

But none of that helped those schools on the realignment front.  Passed over by the ACC and SEC, West Virginia at least found money in the Big XII, if not nearby rivals or combatants with similar cultures.  Cincinnati and Connecticut were simply passed over, period.

Now having to smile and say nice things about the American Athletic Conference (the rebranded Big East), UConn athletic director Warde Manuel isn’t closing the door on future moves:

“Since the NCAA has been around, since formation of the NCAA, if you look at the history, there’s been realignment of conferences for different reasons.  I don’t proclaim to know if it will ever be done again.  History will tell me at some point there’s going to be shifts.”

Manuel is correct.  Eventually there will be more moves.  College athletic conferences have been in a state of evolution for decades (though the past five years have seemed like a jump straight from the primordial ooze to upright man).  The problem for UConn and Cincinnati, however, is that it doesn’t look like anyone’s going to be making more moves anytime soon.

While it’s possible the Big Ten might look at UConn — that league picked Rutgers and Maryland over the Huskies in November — it’s doubtful Ohio State would want Cincinnati climbing aboard.  It’s also possible that the ACC could decide to expand, but with 15 members in all sports but football, why add anyone else?  (Unless, of course, ESPN says it would help sales of a new ACC Network.)

Perhaps the best hope for the UCs would be a decision by the Big XII to expand.  But that league’s leaders have said the television networks have told them they really wouldn’t benefit by adding teams like Connecticut and Cincinnati.

Bearcat fans have already begun to pepper this website (East Carolina-style) with emails saying, “Hey, what about a UC/SEC marriage?”  Such a move would push the SEC Network into Ohio, perhaps, but Cincinnati just doesn’t fit the traditional mold of an SEC school — flagship school, the only game in town athletically, big football stadium, etc.  Most importantly, it’s doubtful the addition of Cincinnati would pay for itself.

There will be more realignment at some point — perhaps when a new super-division or rich schools is created, perhaps in five or 10 years when another spate of TV deals come up for renegotiation.  But by that time, will UConn and Cincinnati have fallen so far behind cash-wise as to be even less attractive to potential suitors?

As we mentioned earlier today in another post, USA Today has completed a study of Division I athletic departments (public schools with public records), their income, their expenses, and the amount of monetary help they receive in the form of subsidies.  The numbers examined are from 2012, but — as we always mention in regards to these types of pieces — no two schools prepare their books the same way.  Due to the differences in accounting, this is not a pure apples-to-apples comparison.

Still, since USA Today has done the work for all of us — thanks! — we thought we’d show you their findings regarding the SEC’s public schools:

The disparity in numbers between Texas A&M and Missouri — still counting cash from their Big XII days — seems a bit odd, but you can double-check the numbers yourself via the second link above.

This fall, South Carolina will open the 2013 football season against North Carolina in Columbia.  The two teams will also meet to open up the 2015 season, but that game will take on a more special feel.

The Charlotte Observer reports that the Gamecocks and Tar Heels will butt heads in Charlotte at the NFL Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium.  An official announcement is expected to come tomorrow.

The explosion in the number of neutral site games across the college football landscape is something we discussed way back in July of 2009.  In a piece focusing on the future of the SEC, we sat down with a sports marketing expert and tried to imagine what might come next in the world of college sports.  “Keeping The SEC On Top: What’s The Next Big Thing” provides a snapshot into a world when the SEC’s twin TV deals were still wowing folks and the overall US economy was still frightening them.

Now four years on, it’s a pretty interesting read.

File this under “No Surprise.”  Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart wants no part of an expanded, nine-game conference schedule:

“Nine games is not something we favor.  I do not think a nine-game schedule would serve Kentucky well…

History says it’s very difficult for us to have the level of depth, the second, third, fourth lines of players, that some of the other schools in our league have just as a means of their in-state recruiting situations.  When we have to play a long line of league games, it’s a grind, our teams can get beaten up physically.  It’s better for us, for our players, when the schedule allows us to have some so-called breathers, so that our kids can sort of restore themselves physically in-season.”

Translation: “We’re weak.  We know we’re weak.  We don’t foresee a day when we’ll be strong.  So we need cupcakes on the schedule.”

Barnhart isn’t the only AD in the league to make comments like this.  Mississippi State’s Scott Stricklin has said that his school needs pastries, too (though we send kudos to MSU for taking on Oklahoma State this year).  Vanderbilt coach James Franklin has said he’s against a nine-game schedule, too.

Simply put, you can be sure that most of the traditional non-powers in the SEC hope to avoid a nine-game schedule.  OK.  They have their reasons.  Everyone wants to win games and everyone wants to go to a bowl game.

But do any fans really want to hear their school’s athletic director say that their program has to have “breathers” in order to win and reach those bowl games?  Where’s the ambition in that?  Where’s the confidence?

Laugh if you like, but any school can win.  If Kentucky had beaten Alabama to the punch and hired Nick Saban in 2007 is there anyone out there who doesn’t believe UK would be competing for SEC titles today?  In addition, it should be left to the fans to make the “we’ve got no in-state talent” argument.  Barnhart’s job is to find someone who can recruit kids from inside and outside the Bluegrass State.  That’s the lay of the land.  It can be done.  Some of UK’s SEC neighbors have proven it can be done.

In terms of NFL draft picks produced by SEC states, Tennessee and Arkansas rank at the bottom of the SEC along with Kentucky.  Tossing out Ivy League schools, Tennessee is one of the 10 winningest programs in the country all-time.  Arkansas is in the all-time top 20 for victories.  No in-state talent?  Recruit out of state.

Hey, we get that Kentucky doesn’t have the tradition or the recruiting base of some of its rivals.  But an athletic director admitting that his school can’t succeed without “breathers” and patsies?  Sorry.  That’s just not what an SEC athletic director should be saying.

SEC Football

1. SEC athletic directors are meeting Jacksonville.  Reports indicate no discussion of nine-game conference schedule for 2014.

2. LSU running back Jeremy Hill faces new probation restrictions - including a curfew.

3. Jeff Duncan: “Miles needs to make a statement here and a strong one.”  The MrSEC take from last week.

4. Georgia led the country with 10 early enrollees coming from high school this spring.  Counting JUCO and prep schools, Bulldogs had 13 early enrollees.

5. Recent history shows it tough for wide receivers to make an impact as freshman at Florida.

6. Auburn freshman quarterbacks Jeremy Johnson and Jason Smith are expected on campus next week.  Status of arrival date for JUCO transfer Nick Marshall still uncertain.

7. Coming out of spring practice, how does Auburn look at defensive tackle? With other SEC schools expanding stadiums, Jordan-Hare isn’t shrinking – it just feels that way.

8. Tennessee coach Butch Jones estimates he does three times the speaking engagements he did at Cincinnati.

9. Based on the early odds, South Carolina and Georgia look to be the favorites in the SEC East, Alabama the favorite in the West. Crimson Tide and Ohio State in BCS National Championship Game?

10. Andy Staples of SI has his post-spring Top 25.  Six of the top 13 teams are in the SEC, seven of the top 25.   Alabama No. 1, Texas A&M No. 2.

11. Alabama today or Nebraska of the 1990′s?  Former Cornhusker Tommy Frazier weighs in.

12.  The SEC Network doesn’t change the recruiting philosophy at Alabama.  Nick Saban: “We have a standard for what type of player we are looking for.”

13. New documentary film focuses on former Arkansas quarterback Mitch Mustain.

SEC Basketball

14. Trae Golden’s departure from Tennessee wasn’t his decision. He was reportedly forced to leave school over “repeated plagiarism.”

15. Cuonzo Martin on whether the Vols will add a point guard to their signing class. “We have some pretty good leads and we’ll see.”

16. NCAA meeting on possible rule changes to basketball.  Don’t expect a shorter shot clock.

17. Former Ole Miss star Murphy Holloway waived by the Baltimore Ravens.  ”Back to the hardwood…” Could be headed to Europe to play basketball.

Extras

18. In addition to Mississippi State and South Florida, former Penn State quarterback Steven Bench also considering North Carolina State.

19. “NCAA rules aren’t going to stop money from changing hands when there is this much value being discussed.”

20. Does a Sugar Bowl win over Florida make Louisville overrated?

For years there’s been talk that some of the richest schools in the country might break away from the NCAA.  Readers of this site know that we’ve tackled that topic — here, here, here, here and here since December alone — and suggested that instead of a full split, it’s much more likely that the richest schools will simply form their own “super-division” within the NCAA.

With the bounty of a new college football playoff on the horizon and new league-owned networks soon to launch, there’s about to be even more distance put between the haves and have-nots.  And that’s got long-time NCAA leaders like outgoing Georgia president Michael Adams saying exactly what we’ve been writing lo these many years:

“It’s gonna accentuate the division between the haves and the have-nots.  I don’t think there’s any question about it.  And you might as well just admit it.  But the divisions already exist that are pretty pronounced.  So I think the 65 schools in the big conferences are going to separate themselves even further from those schools that are not…

I don’t know what you’d call it.  And I think some of those other conferences, like the MAC, like the West Coast Conference, what’s now gonna be Conference USA, those schools bring a lot to the NCAA.  And I think the reality is that the 65 schools are not gonna want to be bound by some of the rules that those other conferences are gonna want to impose on us, like the $2,000 payment to athletes, for instance.  I do think, again, whether you call it all Division I, of sub-divisions, I think that’s something for somebody after me to decide.

But I don’t think now with these big-time programs, particularly when you look at the strength of the Big Ten, the Pac-12, the SEC, I don’t think you’re gonna put those genies back in the bottle.  And you add in the Big 12 and the ACC, those places, they’re going to compete and play and fund at a totally different level.”

As Seth Emerson of The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer points out (click the link above), even SEC commissioner Mike Slive has brought up the potential of a new division being formed if NCAA schools don’t start providing full-cost-of-tuition scholarships to student-athletes.  Of course, he also said that he doesn’t want that to happen, but most people couldn’t hear that over the rattling of his saber:

“I’m not looking for change in the organization.  I’m not looking for new divisions.  But I do feel strongly on this particular issues — and there are a few others — but this one that those of us who want to do that ought to have the ability to do that.  And if we believe that’s in the best interests of the student-athletes, then we ought to be able to do that.  If other leagues don’t do it, then just don’t do it.”

Ah, but not all leagues can afford to pay more cash to players even if they do want to.  Slive knows that.  All of the large conference commissioners, presidents and athletic directors know that.  NCAA president Mark Emmert knows it, too.

This morning, USA Today posted a new study showing that most college athletic departments receive subsidies of one form or another.  Of the 228 public Division I schools in the US, just 23 turned a profit in 2012.  And of those 23, 16 schools received some type of subsidy.

It must be noted that schools cook their books differently.  Apples-to-apples comparisons do not exist, unfortunately.  But it is clear that even if some creative accounting is taking place — Minnesota just happened to bring in and spend exactly $83,619,526, for example — there are still far more athletic departments losing money than there are making money.

There will be no grand exodus from the NCAA.  There is no way that 70-80 schools — we believe some schools outside the biggest conferences will try to keep up with the Joneses — could possibly agree on a brand new organization, new rule book, new enforcement policies, new officers and administrators, etc.

But a world with a super-division of super-rich schools is coming.  With so few schools turning a profit in athletics, there’s no way everyone can provide stipends or full-cost-of-tuition scholarships as leagues like the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 desire.  The die has been cast.  The only questions remaining are: When does it happen and who will make the jump?

Apparently Tuesday was “Go After the SEC Day” around the nation.  First, Bob Stoops called the league’s reputation a product of “propaganda.”  Then The Sporting News’ Matt Hayes conveyed word that folks are now concerned that the SEC and ESPN will work to put more league teams in the new College Football Playoff:

“Sports Business Daily reports that ESPN will own the SEC channel and share profits evenly with the conference.  The SEC owns the content.  ESPN owns television rights to all of the new College Football Playoff.

See where this is headed?

‘If I were anyone other than the SEC,’ says one industry source, ‘I’d be more than a little uneasy about the whole thing.’

If there weren’t already claims from the West Coast, Midwest and Southwest that the SEC has received preferential treatment from the BCS all these years, imagine what happens the first time the most successful conference in the game gets two (or more) teams in the new College Football Playoff.”

First, Hayes is correct that there will be conspiracy theories.  Thanks to the power of the internet, we no longer have any legitimate champions.  The kind of “the refs were in the bag” or “the TV networks wanted ‘em” talk that used to be heard in barbershops can now be shared with the world via social media and blogs and straight-up media websites.  We no longer crown champs.  Instead, we claim that Spygate or Bountygate or stolen signs in baseball (the World Series-winning Phillies) or spending (“The Yankees and Red Sox just buy their titles”) is the real reason teams win titles.  Hell, SEC fans do this to one another.  If it’s your school that wins, it’s legitimate.  If someone else win, there’s been some hanky-panky.

Second, Hayes is also correct that ESPN’s ownership of everything under the sun does make for some potential conflicts of interest.  Now, it’s doubtful that the new playoff selection committee — whatever that group turns out to be — will be on the phone with ESPN discussing who the network wants in the field.  That playoff will be watched by millions upon millions regardless of who’s playing in it.  But throw logic out the window, the potential for skullduggery will leave many claiming skullduggery.  Such is life in a world where ESPN has its hands in every pie.

Third, Hayes’ comment — “Imagine what happens the first time the most successful conference in the game gets two (or more) teams in the new College Football Playoff” — sums up the feeling we’ve been writing about since the playoff was announced.  Outside the SEC, no one wants the league to get more than one team into the playoff.  While there’s the slight potential that ESPN will try to influence the selection committee, there’s also the potential for selection committee members to succumb to their own biases in order to limit the number of SEC squads in the playoff.  Funny, no one seems to be worried much about that.

Finally, there’s a crack in the argument that the SEC and ESPN are two big bodies in cahoots — ESPN is in cahoots with everyone.  Who owns the rights to all the ACC games and is working on a new network for that conference?  ESPN.  Who partnered with Texas on its network?  ESPN.  Who has TV deals in place with the Big Ten and Pac-12 and Big East as well?  ESPN?

Yes, the SEC Network figures to be the most profitable of all those deals, but to suggest that ESPN will somehow push SEC teams into the new playoff more often is to ignore the fact that the network would have to snub all its other partners to do so.

Oh, you can count on conspiracy theories.  But that doesn’t mean the theories are reality.

Don’t tell Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops that the SEC is special.  When discussing the gap between the Southeastern Conference and his own league, the Big XII, on Monday, the Sooners’ coach had this to say:

“Well, it depends on what gap you’re talking about.  What are the bottom six doing?

… So they’ve had the best team in college football.  They haven’t had the whole conference.  Because, again, half of ‘em haven’t done much at all.  I’m just asking you.  You tell me...

So you’re listening to a lot of propaganda that gets fed out to you.  You’re more than smart enough to figure it out.  Again, you can look at the top two, three, four, five, six teams, and you can look at the bottom six, seven, eight, whatever they are.  How well are they all doing?”

This is the new argument for folks outside the SEC.  “Well, it’s really just a few schools that are good.”  Unfortunately, that’s a hollow argument.  Here’s why:

Has everyone in the SEC won a championship during the BCS era?  No, but five teams have… which is more than double the number of title-winning teams any other league has produced in recent years.  That seems like a rather sizable gap.

Obviously, no league can have 14 schools all win in a given year.  League-mates beat up on one another.  But top to bottom — that’s top to bottom – the SEC dominates everyone else come bowl season, sending more teams to bowls and winning almost 60% of those games.

Traditionally speaking, the bottom programs of the SEC have been Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt.  Last season, Vandy beat the ACC’s North Carolina State in a bowl game.  The Commodores have won two bowls and been to three since 2008.

Last season, Ole Miss beat the Big East’s Pittsburgh in a bowl game.  The Rebels also won a pair of Cotton Bowls over Big XII teams Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

Last season, Mississippi State fell to Northwestern (Big Ten) in its bowl, but the Bulldogs have won their other two bowls since 2009 beating Michigan (Big Ten) and Wake Forest (ACC).

Kentucky has fallen on hard times in recent years, but the Wildcats have been to five bowls since the 2006 season and won three of them (over Clemson, Florida State and East Carolina).

And speaking of the Wildcats, perhaps Mark Stoops can clue his brother in on the dangers of the SEC when he runs the league’s gauntlet for the first time this fall.  Though Brother Bob should already know all about the SEC.  He’s lost to both LSU and Florida in BCS Championship Games.