$6mil/year for Calipari?
Obviously this thread is going to degenerate into a character assessment of Calipari and whether or not there are recruiting violation skeletons he might leave behind at Memphis, but let's just skip that.
If we assume a coach is "clean", is $6mil/year reasonable?
Memphis has TWO of the top FIVE recruits nationally coming in next year because of coach Cal. I don't see why he would leave for Kentucky. That being said, he was dirty at UMASS with Camby... he has TWO of the top FIVE coming in to MEMPHIS (?!?) next year... yeaaa.... Cal seems squeeky clean...
yeah...
If you believe Wall ends up there too.
If he goes they will be just nasty next year.
I can see alot of attrition occurring at tucky. The vast majority of them should consider just that...
Remember it was Calapari that started to the trend of coaches giving kid's Dads jobs on their staff. He made Deshean (sp?)Wager's dad like the 5th assistant coach and magically his son followed him there.
right. I want to hear from Cal what is it about tucky he would want to step into this pressure cooker. Does he think he can flip this program into a national power again within two years? The natives aren't going to be down with some five year turnaround plan...they want a winner NOW!
Cal should really listen to Dickie V and Pretty Ricky...if he's friends with Tubby,he might want to consult with him also.
If the 3 recruits follow Cal to Kentucky they will go from NIT to preseason #1. The recruting class Cal has lined up is SICK. It's just as good as the fab five and just as dirty.
Calipari would go to St. John's, Carnesecca would stop being a crotchety old control freak and give Calipari the reigns, and my Redmen would be relevant again.
I know there's no reason to get my hopes up, but Calipari has expressed interest in the past until Lou put the kabash on it. But honestly, I'm just dying here in NY during the basketball season; Michigan basketball has been my team to follow the last few years. Even with Amaker it was better than sitting through an Isaiah coached Knicks game or a Roberts coached Johnnies game.
You think you heard boos at Michigan Stadium last year...try going to MSG for a Red Storm game. It's embarrassing. 90% of the game the "fans" are booing. I can't bring myself to go anymore.
Walter Berry when you need him. Damm shame the Johnnies have fallen sofar back. In a hotbed of recruits...no one is able to harness the talent beneath their feet.
The guys at ESPN seem to think Cal is a lock for the UK job. I thought $5M would be their offer for Cal or Izzo. If Cal gets $6M, every coach in both the NCAA and NBA should call him and say "thanks."
One great and probable effect of that kind of contract is that it would increase Izzo's market value to something that MSU isn't ready to pay. That would be sweeeeet.
recruits seem to love coaches that look like Scarface
March 31st, 2009 at 11:59 AM ^
For basketball? No. It's a revenue sport, but not THAT lucrative. Not to mention that if you spend that much on your hoops coach, you risk alienating your football coach if you don't offer him a similar contract, given that football brings in the biggest bucks. If you refuse to offer your football coach a comparable deal, you're pretty much guaranteeing that your football program will remain small-time.
If Rich Brooks bitches about his contract, Barnhart will say "Uh, you do realize this is Kentucky, right?" Football is a distraction until basketball begins there, even now with the football team not being completely terrible. Basketball will always be king there.
But for the SEC TV contract (which obviously is football driven, no thanks to Kentucky), I'm sure basketball makes a lot more for Kentucky than football does. They sell out a 23,000 seat arena basically very game.
At a similar type sports hierarchy school, I'm positive Indiana is paying Crean much more than they're paying their football coach. Again, basketball is king there. They don't seem terribly interested in becoming a power football program, especially if it were to take away from basketball.
Even if it's true that basketball generates more revenue at those schools, it's a given that they are taking in less than we and the other big football schools are. Your revenue ceiling is going to be lower in a sport played in a 20,000-seat arena than one played in 50,000-100,000-seat stadiums. Schools that aren't maximizing their football revenue will probably have a tough time keeping their entire athletic department in the black.
Well do a little math. UK has probably twice as many people show up to every home football game than every home bball game. However, there are only 6 home football games a year, and well over 12 home basketball games. Even if you assume that football ticket prices are slightly higher, the ticket revenue from basketball is way higher than football. Take into account the number of people who buy UK bball apparel compared to football, and you'll see that their bball team brings in a lot more money than football.
I'm not saying that UK's basketball program couldn't bring in more money than its football program. What I'm saying is that the revenue ceiling for a sport like basketball is lower than it is for football, where dominant programs play in gigantic stadiums (often with PSLs and luxury boxes). If UK could ever become a national power in football, it would draw far more revenue in that sport. A $6 million salary for a football coach might be justifiable (in the case of USC and Pete Carroll, I'd say it is), but I'm not sure it is for a basketball coach.
Incidentally, while I don't know this for a fact, I'd bet that the average ticket to a UK football game costs more than one to a UK basketball game, despite the fact that the latter program is much stronger.
I'm sure you're right about the ticket prices being different. However, I don't think it's by enough to make up for the number of basketball games, and the fact that sodas and hot dogs and what not at the games are probably the same, and the jerseys are the same, and the t-shirts and all else.
They have no standards but athletic standards down there. Just throw money at every problem to solve it, sort of like our government nowadays no?
This is a huge gamble by UK based on the fact that Calipari may be able to win right away. He better do it clean (in the squeaky sense) or he will end up like fast eddie.
Then there's the best team money can buy achilles to this hire. For that coin and with up to 3 top 10 one and done recruits in tow, meeks? Patterson? UK will likely be alienating and boring like the yankees even if they win stuff.
And, he's not in C-USA so the SEC might actually rise up and kick some serious UK ass regardless of who they be.
It is great to be in our conference, with Beilein, with this years team as role models for the future. PSU did a nice job ousting ND tonight in the NIT.
World Cup Q action on tube later tonight--good viddying.
Thankfully, the board has done a fantastic job averting any semblance of an answer to the original post.
So, I get first dibs:
6 million dollars per one person per year is a verifiably insane wage. Even if I pull off my "at least socialism works well on paper" sunglasses, I can't see how any human being is worth that much money. More pragmatically, this is bad news for sports. To be sure, this instant salary inflation (of doubled proportions--literally) will work to inflate coaches' salaries across the national pool.
After all, human beings are greedy, adaptable, opportunistic creatures. So, the coaches (some of whom, yes I understand, are only arguably human beings at all) are bound to treat Calipari's new salary as a new precedent. Ergo, the best, greediest, most opportunistic coaches will adapt by asking Athletic Departments for comparable payments. Then, lesser coaches will in turn ask for less than "those guys", yet more than "before Calipari" (B.C.). And, before long, the national coaching profession will have jumped up one rung or several on the salary ladder, and fans, facilities, and athletic department budgets will be lesser off for it.