Friday, October 26, 2007

Mayer

Mayer: Spoils await Kansas

By Bill Mayer

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If the current Kansas football team finishes as well as the last two Jayhawk crews that got off to a 7-0 start, there'll be dancing in the streets and the coaching staff will fare even better financially than it is now. There'll be bonuses if Kansas winds up in a big-time bowl game; raises already may be under consideration.

With five games left, KU 2007 easily could win three, maybe four, and be no worse than the 10-2 that Glen Mason and Co. produced in 1995 with a finishing victory over UCLA in the Aloha Bowl. Texas A&M on Saturday will be treacherous. Our guys think they're ready to prevail, and they just might.

After its 7-0 run in '95, Kansas fell 41-7 at Kansas State, beat Missouri, got ripped 41-3 by Nebraska, then rebounded with a 22-17 victory at Oklahoma State before going to Hawaii.

Pepper Rodgers' 1968 Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma, 27-23, in their eighth game but dispatched Kansas State and Missouri to tote a 9-1 record into that 15-14 Orange Bowl heartbreaker with Penn State.

This KU team realistically can see wins in any of its last five games, and it's been a long time since people have been talking so much Jayhawk football. They're getting to know and admire the resourceful youngsters who wear their colors and are proud as the dickens. Such enthusiasm carries over, and KU enters the stretch run invigorated by the warmth and intense interest in their doings.

As for coach Mark Mangino's 12-man coaching staff, it is doing an exceptional job. Athletic director Lew Perkins will make that even clearer with raises at the end of something like a 10-3 or 11-2 year.

Heading the assistants' salary list is defensive coordinator Bill Young with a $214,120 package. Next is new offensive coordinator Ed Warriner at $210,000. Both get heavy credit, and they should, for how they have the Jayhawks flying.

KU's other 10 assistants are averaging $141,700 with the highest figure in this group $199,000 and the lowest $120,000. Nobody under six figures. What about "civilians" on the Mount Oread payroll?

Stablemate Chuck Woodling had an exceptional Tuesday piece about how the NCAA's Knight Commission has found that academicians increasingly accept the fact they're dealing with the entertainment business and have no hope of derailing Big Football and Big Basketball.

Last I checked, the average FULL professor at KU gets something like $90,000 to $95,000 per annum, around $50,000 less than the 10 "lowest-paid" football assistants. At Texas, the difference is at least $55,000, and at Oklahoma it's about $60,000. Woodling quoted the Indiana law school dean: "... the faculty sense that if they tried to get in front of the train, they'd just get run over anyway."

With a sellout set for the Kansas-Missouri game Nov. 24 in Kansas City, Mo., each club is due to take home $2 million. A hundred years ago this November, the Kansas-Missouri game was shifted from Kansas City to St. Joseph, Mo., after a K.C. field owner tried to hike the rental fee too much. St. Joe went all-out playing host to the event, and it drew a record crowd of about 8,500. The gate receipts totaled $8,360, and each team took home $2,000. This year's take will be 1,000 times that.

When bucks like that flooding in, we'll see coaching salaries keep rising, and the almighty dollar will increasingly rule who does what and with which and to whom in college sports. Except you better win, baby!

Comments

okjhok (anonymous) says...

Had no idea the assistants take home that much green.

October 26, 2007 at 6:23 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

I hate to say this, but it isn't enough!

double it! my word, after what Warriner has accomplished this season?!?

I'll be really surprised if KU holds on to Bill Young for more than another season or two, you'd think somewhere there's a head coaching job with his name on it!

October 26, 2007 at 6:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JBurtin (anonymous) says...

It's very good news for us that we're not far behind major programs like Texas and Oklahoma on coaching salaries. It makes it a very expensive proposition to buy out any of our coaches. Hopefully they will all get the kinds of extensions that will keep them around. I want them to be paid enough that a team that wants them is going to have to be offering a head coaching job just to afford the buyout.

One of the biggest detriments to sustaining success at a place like KU is that we've always had an AD that wasn't willing to pay what the big dogs were paying.

We got exactly what we paid for. A lousy team.

and in anticipation of the inevitable whiners that feel that coaches are being paid too much

The big salaries easily pay for themselves by putting winning teams on the field and packing the stands. Since Lawrence is not a huge community many of these fans are from out of town, bringing in big Kansas City and Topeka dollars to our small community. Then the excess funds generated from ticket sales and donations can be used to finance all of the different sports that don't turn a profit for themselves, giving other student athletes a chance to live their dreams.

Having a good football program to compliment our basketball program is a winning situation for everyone.

October 26, 2007 at 6:44 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

This is true, 7, however, I doubt doubling Young's salary would keep him here much longer. Course, I could be wrong.

October 26, 2007 at 6:45 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Displayhawk (anonymous) says...

I would gladly make the kind of jack that Bill Young makes and not have to deal with all the BS that a head coach does, but Coach Young has been around long enough to know that sometimes that sidewalk that is paved with greenbacks will lead you into a quagmire!

October 26, 2007 at 7:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

troutsee (anonymous) says...

Young is getting along in age. I doubt that a head coaching job will open for him. He is a wonderful coach.

October 26, 2007 at 7:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

klong (anonymous) says...

I think we have to do whatever it takes to keep them all around. Mangino the first priority. He has done a great job of getting good staff around him, and doesn't hesitate to get rid of them if they don't produce.

October 26, 2007 at 9:35 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

It's definitely a worn-out phrase, but I can't think of a better one to describe this situation:

"You've got to spend money to make money."

Lew is an excellent businessman, he understands that premise, and pays all of our football coaches pretty good coin to do a very good job. I hope this will alleviate most of the b!tching from people about Lew's shakeups from the good ol' boy / men's basketball is our only livelihood way of thinking from the past.

October 26, 2007 at 9:52 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

klong (anonymous) says...

Thank you bmcmich! I loved Roy while he was here, but him thinking he could control how they ran the FB program was crap. BB doesn't make anywhere near the amount of money for your school that FB does. I'm glad Lew was smart enough to see that.

October 26, 2007 at 9:59 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bdsnook (anonymous) says...

I think it's becoming more obvious that the status quo Roy and Bob maintained did not help Kansas football at all. It's funny how right after Roy left, we got the Fieldhouse makeover and the Hall of Athletics.

You don't even have to rewind a decade to physically see how utterly behind we were in football. No Complex, no Strength Center, no suites, not even a video scoreboard. Geeze.

October 26, 2007 at 10:22 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

GitS (Christian Hinton) says...

I feel that "the dickens" should be capitalized.

Compare:

"...proud as the dickens."

"...proud as The Dickens."

It just seems more proud to me.

October 26, 2007 at 11:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

vmwskywalk (anonymous) says...

bmcmich1, klong, and bdsnook.....I agree 110% Football can be a great recruiting tool for basketball and vice versa. It's amazing to me that Roy would deliberately give away that advantage so he could be top dog.

October 26, 2007 at 11:55 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

leikness (anonymous) says...

Gotta say I really don't appreciate all of the blasphemous talk against ole Roy. He was the best thing to ever happen to KU athletics, took the basketball program from a highly respected traditional program to a perpetual powerhouse.

Roy brought the same attention to detail to coaching the bball team the Mangino brings to coaching the football team. I wish Self brought that same attention to detail instead of the mixed messages he typically send to his players.

Damm it I told myself I wouldn't think about basketball until January.

October 26, 2007 at 1:14 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

For the record, there was no mention of Roy in my post, just mention of the 'Men's Basketball IS Kansas Athletics' line of thinking in past years. Everyone is certainly free to infer whatever meaning they want to about my post, but I can assure you it wasn't a personal attack on Roy.

One cannot argue, though, that the Football Program as a whole was put on the back burner during his latter years here, and whether that was his doing or not is not for me to say. I personally have no idea whether it was his intention to sabotage Football growth or not and I am not going to assume that was the case without knowing any facts. The one fact that can be taken from his time here is that Football was largely ignored, and Lew is doing an excellent job of correcting that, which brings me to the point of my original post.

October 26, 2007 at 1:27 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

leikness (anonymous) says...

Just trying to spark a little conversation....usually praising or bashing Roy brings out the emotion in folks.

October 26, 2007 at 1:40 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

leikness (anonymous) says...

"when bucks like that flooding in" - last paragraph. Horrible English/editing.

October 26, 2007 at 1:44 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

Gotcha leikness...

Having seen where some of the love/hate Roy stuff has gone on basketball postings, I don't think I've got the energy for that today! =)

October 26, 2007 at 2:17 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

A correction to the article - The average Prof salary is $50k less than the average Assitant's salary. It is only $30k less than the lowest Assitant's salary.

Personally, I'm not ready to blame Roy for the most recent football woes. He was a supporter of Terry Allen as a person, and maybe in part because he came to KU with much the same acclaim that Roy did - none.

While Roy definitely resolidified the BB program on the national scene, it was Larry Brown that took us back to prominence and the NC, even if we did have to endure the NCAA penalties afterwards. Lost a lot of respect for LB as a person when he jumped ship like he did.

Unfortunately, TA never made the transition into D1 FB and needed to go. I don't think TA's departure had nearly as much to do with Roy leaving as it did with Lew arriving, and changing the expectations of KU FB. (Had you noticed, LP's last school, UConn, had been one of the other last surprise undefeated teams?)

A strong, grounded FB program will benefit the entire uni as well as the community. Someone posted a link to an article (cbssportsline?) a couple weeks ago about the Buckeye's athletic budget, with some reference to programs as well, and how it supports all the other sports. Even women's hockey, and a bunch of others KU doesn't even think about having.

October 26, 2007 at 4:16 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JBurtin (anonymous) says...

That's the one thing I commend Roy for doing. Al Bohl made a great hire when he found Mangino, but there's no doubt that he was building the programs in completely the wrong way. Roy made sure that his last act as men's basketball coach was to get rid of Bohl.

Then, Hemenway hit one out of the park by luring Perkins to KU. He takes a multi-dimensional approach that wants to improve all aspects of Kansas athletics. Football has certainly improved, Men's basketball has improved it's recruiting and facilities, and (though it is going to take some time to build) women's basketball now has a coach that is luring in much bigger prospects than before. Three top 25 recruiting classes in a row I believe, and they finally got a much needed big time post player in their last class. Other sports have had flashes of brilliance as well and are now working on consistency. In addition you've seen team GPA's setting new records every year, and improved emphasis on rules compliance.

I've been a big fan of Perkins since I read the strategic plan that he sent out to all of the boosters. Whatever his salary is, he's certainly earning it.

October 26, 2007 at 6:12 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

actorman (anonymous) says...

Did anyone else notice that ESPN, that bastion of fact checking, screwed up when talking about KU's history? They had a blurb running on the bottom of the screen when the KU-aTm game came up, saying that the 7-0 start for KU was the second such start in KU history.

It sure would be nice if ESPN actually bothered to put out the truth every once in a while.

October 26, 2007 at 11:44 p.m. ( | suggest removal )