LA Times Article Takes Aim At Top-Heavy Coach/AD Salaries, Uses M As Prime Example
"He wasn't a highly-sought commodity, and his salary at San Diego had been $700,000. Brandon's crackerjack negotiating skills got Hoke for a bargain-basement price of just shy of $3 million a year. Mary Sue Coleman, then the university president, pulled down a bit more than $600,000, as the highest-paid president in the university's history."
The author goes on to quote Jonathan Chait: "I would really like to see an economics textbook try to explain the negotiating dynamic here."
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-of-college-football-co…
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:27 PM ^
I wonder what Hoke would have accepted to come here. I'm guessing a million. It honestly feels like Brandon just threw 4 million at him to make it look like we were hiring an elite coach.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:28 PM ^
Maybe a pay cut? I mean seriously, he may have taken a pay cut to get to his dream job. But that is kind of insulting, so pride may have gotten in the way. And yeah, it would have been insulting. But he still may have taken it.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:29 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:26 PM ^
These articles need to be forwarded to Schlissel and the Regents.
They need to pile up, one after another.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:28 PM ^
Obedient puppets don't come cheap these days.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:52 PM ^
How much would you charge to be Brandon's bitch?
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:29 PM ^
Could have saved the cost of an airplane ticket too because he would have walked to Ann Arbor for the job.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:31 PM ^
Coulda done some good for that waistline too.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:30 PM ^
Can someone explain to me how the current president of the university having the highest paid salary in the university's history is something to be upset about? Shouldn't the current president make more than the previous president? And didn't MSC turn down a raise that would have doubled her salary?
Administration salaries are definitely an issue, but it's more than just the amount the top person makes. It's the positions added and the raises around the entire administration that are driving costs up, not just the big number the guy at the top makes.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:51 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:30 PM ^
No matter how much he made at his previous school, we would have looked like complete assholes if we had not paid a competative salary.
It's the same in any business. When the economy sucked, we had people offering to come work for us at a 50% pay reduction. Even if we brought a guy on though, we still paid him full salary. You just can't undercut a person like that in any business.
We would have been a complete joke.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:43 PM ^
challenge some of your thinking. People often defend coach salaries by saying that they're the market rate, etc. The article is in part dedicated to refuting that over-simple analysis. The salaries don't accord with classic job market function at all.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:46 PM ^
I didn't read the entire article. I read the excerpts provided in the OP. And those excerpts imply that Michigan is stupid for overpaying for an unproven MAC coach. And most of this board seems to pile on to that sentiment.
It might have been stupid to hire an unproven MAC coach. This is difficult to dispute (only in hindsight mind you). BUT! We still had to pay him commensurate with market.
I also don't dispute that the market is insane. The HTTV2014 article explained that extremely well, and I encourage all to pick it up. BUT! That is the market. It is something that everybody controls and yet simultaneously can't control. We paid what we HAD to in light of the market at the time. We may have bought a bad apple, but the cost of the apple was set by all the other apples.
Also, we didn't know it was bad until we chewed on it for a couple years. Whatcha gonna do.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:54 PM ^
what we had to, as the article shows.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:24 PM ^
Lol you say something wrong. Mglobules tells you you're wrong and you should read the article. And then you say the same thing again but take 3 times as long to do it still without reading the article.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:40 PM ^
Competetive to what? No one was fighting Michigan for his services, and he was a MAC coach with a sub-500 record. We are NOW a complete joke for paying a coach a salary competitive to Urban Mayer who has the coaching skills of Oscar Meyer.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^
Not by the time he was hired. By the time he was hired, he was the hope of the Maize & Blue, the fearless leader of the Wolverines, the head football coach of an internationally reknowned university. You pay him as such.
Regents don't get paid a salary. But for a moment, let's assume they each get paid $1M. Brian seeks to become a regency with no prior experience, and no idea of what a regent does. But, if he were to be elected. He would suddenly make $1M. It doesn't matter that he is an unproven blogger. You just pay him what he should be paid in line with the title/responsibilities that he has undertaken.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
What are you talking about? If the regents get 1 mil, it's because of some law or policy or whatever that gets them that. It's not like the head coaching position at Michigan comes with a salary and then you hire someone into that.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:41 PM ^
So pay him more than he's worth because it's nice? Why? Hoke has never been worth 4 million at any point in his career. Not even close.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:00 PM ^
Hoke was worth $4M/yr at least during his first year, when we all watched our team win the Sugar Bowl, and enjoyed the subsequent rise in our recruiting rankings.
At the end of that year, I assume that M fandom was at a relative peak. I certainly felt reinvigorated. "Hoke Springs Eternal". Sound familiar?
This was my only point. It seems as though the article excerpts can be summarized as follows:
October 3rd, 2014 at 6:43 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:55 PM ^
It wasn't about what Hoke was "worth", it was about Brandon not looking like an ass for paying him a paltry sum and having the entire M community calling him a cheap skate for not paying more for a better coach.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
Exactly. It was always about image. You can't pay a guy 1.5 million and tell the country you just hired an elite coach.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^
Anyone who knew his record knew he wasn't an elite coach anyway, so what does it matter? No one outside of Michigan was blown away by Michigan hiring Hoke.
Also, alum96 mentions below that Helfrich doesn't get paid shit. It's not like it makes the team bad or the coach unable to recruit.
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^
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October 3rd, 2014 at 4:53 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:36 PM ^
First thought
- For such a great businessman Brandon was negotiating against himself on Hoke. He could have gotten $2.5M or whatever. Helfrich is paid $1.8M at Oregon. Hoke had more seniority but big wow, he was not in demand.
Second thought
- Well if we are going to get Harbaugh or Miles we are going to make this skew even worse!
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:55 PM ^
Here's my question, why give Brandon a big extension? What was the point of extending him until 2018? It looks like it was done to make sure the new president had no chance of getting rid of him.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^
Cuz Mary Sue Coleman and Dave Brandon had a "special" relationship...
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:54 PM ^
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
I hope not, but it seems like the big donors are still supporting him and don't forget the $3 million buyout.
October 3rd, 2014 at 1:56 PM ^
What the LA Times doesn't understand is that if you pay a coach at top-10 type salary, then he becomes a top-10 coach. I mean, why do you think Saban is so good? It's because he's the highest paid coach.
October 3rd, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^
Your salary should be based on performance! Saban deserves his salary! Hoke performs like a sub 1 M coach!
October 3rd, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
Just because Michigan can pay him as much as they do, doesn't mean they should. He didn't have the history of job success to justify what he is getting paid.
October 3rd, 2014 at 8:53 PM ^
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October 3rd, 2014 at 8:58 PM ^
Nobody should feel sorry for Hoke if he gets fired. After Weiss, he's #2 at making way too much money for what he's managed to accomplish. Let's hope he soon has the same amount of time on his hands as Weiss now has. Maybe they could do WeightWatchers together after laughing all the way to the bank.