Ordinarily, Jim Boeheim would be about the 1,000th person in sports for whom I would stand and applaud. He has run what often has been a rogue basketball program at Syracuse, twice getting it sanctioned for violations of NCAA rules.
But these aren't ordinary times, are they?
I'm clapping for Boeheim today.
Syracuse announced Monday that Boeheim and football coach Dino Babers are taking voluntary 10% pay cuts because the university "has experienced more than $35 million in unplanned expenses and unrealized revenue" because of the COVID-19 pandemic. CBSSports.com reported the money will be allocated to support students, faculty and staff affected by the virus.
Good for Boeheim and Babers.
Iowa State was the first college to ask its coaches and athletic staff members to take a mandatory one-year pay cut to save the school $3 million. Several others have followed in announcing cuts for coaches and administrators, including Louisville, Washington State, Wake Forest, Oregon State, Oregon and Missouri. Pitt and Penn State officials have said they aren't at that point yet.
"It's a little early" to fully grasp the economic impact of the pandemic, Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke has said.
"Thanks to some expense savings that we'll have due to not recruiting, not having events in the spring and the fact that over the course over the last five years we've built up an adequate reserve, we're going to be in good shape for the 2020 fiscal year," Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said earlier this month, although acknowledging 2021 could be a much more difficult year if there's no football this fall.
That's why a lot of colleges have started asking coaches to take cuts.
You know, to ease the real and potential economic hardships.
"They were happy to do it," Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra said of his coaches, including basketball's Chris Mack and football's Scott Satterfield. "They wanted to know what they could do to help."
I'll bet the coaches were happy to do it.
Right.
I think about what actor Liam Neeson said a few years ago when he advocated for equal pay for women in Hollywood. Asked if he would take a pay cut to facilitate that equality, he became incredulous and said, "No! Pay cut? No, no, no. That's going too far."
But the coaches have no choice but to take the cuts now that the pandemic has stretched into a second month.
Do you realize that 28 college football coaches and 12 college basketball coaches were the highest-paid public employees in their state in 2019, according to an ESPN survey? I wasn't a math major, but I believe that works out to a staggering number, 80 percent. Penn State's James Franklin was the highest-paid in Pennsylvania at $5.7 million and finalized a new contract in February that will guarantee him at least $38.2 million through the 2025 season. Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf made $194,900 in 2019, by comparison.
I've heard for years how coaches aren't worth the money they make. I've never believed that. The schools pay them exorbitant salaries because of the money their programs bring in. Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Kentucky's John Calipari are worth every penny of $9.3 million a year. Now Michigan's Jim Harbaugh at $7.5 million? I imagine a lot of Michigan fans would argue he isn't worth it. He's 0-5 against Ohio State.
But these are brutal times for everybody, including college athletic programs. Campuses are closed and might not reopen in the fall. Sports have been eliminated at Cincinnati and Old Dominion with many others expected to be terminated at many other universities if there is no 2020 football season. Fundraising has been paralyzed with donations drying up. Schools already have taken a financial beating with the cancellation of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The damage will be almost unimaginable without football.
The highly paid coaches shouldn't have to be asked to take a pay cut to help their school.
They should volunteer the way Boeheim did.
It is the right thing to do.
