Headline: Jimbo Fisher fired as Head Football Coach at Texas A & M with a $75 million payout. Another headline: OVER 1,000 Assistant Football Coaches earn $1,000,000 or more. One more headline: STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS PLAN DENIED BY SUPREME COURT. As Mr. Rogers might say “can you connect the dots”? In this blog we have pointed out several really stupid–beyond belief–university decisions that cost their schools hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and legal fees. But in previous cases we were looking at individual incidents like racial profiling, child molestation or just plain bad decisions. The pay for sport coaches is a systematic epidemic–and not just football. At least 95% of all higher education students DO NOT PURSUE ANY SPORTING CAREER AFTER GRADUATION. But they ALL PAY FOR INCREASED TUITION CAUSED BY GROSSLY OVERPAYING SPORT COACHES. Some of these decisions are demanded by influential alumni; some are prompted by the financial profitability of the sport; and some are just to attract any high school student who might be interested in a non-educational activity while away from home. Whatever the rationale–it is wrong to expect the non-sport student to pay for the consistent and growing bad decisions that benefit a very small percentage of the total student body. We need limits and when we don’t get limits we get what we got. When President Biden proposed a loan forgiveness program we’re sure he realized that the repayment burden foisted on almost all these young people was not due to any action on their part. He also recognized that forgiving the debt would put more purchasing power into the hands of a generation that buys homes, cars, appliances and many other related items–all to the benefit of the US economy. So we ask you to notice how perverted the university judgement factor impacts all of us and, the next time you read about a huge uncalled-for outlays of funds by a university in your area, speak up. It may be your kids who choose to attend a school where sports rule.
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