Ralph Nader Calls for Ending Athletic Scholarships

"....some coaches are earning five to 10 times what is paid to their schools' president. He advocates a hard salary cap on coaches' pay, although he admits getting approval for one would be difficult."

"If the NCAA were to place, say, a $400,000 cap on coaches' compensation packages -- about five times an assistant professor's pay, which would also put coaches' pay in line with the average pay of college presidents -- it would not materially affect the quality of coaching or the college programs' ability to attract top talent," Zimbalist wrote".

It is obsene to spend $5 million on a football coach when the school does not have the funds for academic scholarships or true professors who are there to actally educate students. And imagine what big schools spend on all their coaching stff - football, basketball, baseball, soccer, swimming, etc...

Zimbalist is right - the caches would coach even with a slaary cap as long a they didn't think someone else was getting better. Maybe the school would make MORE money, and instead of spending it on jacuzzis for sore knees, they would divert those funds to poor students looking for a break on insanely high tuitions. Or maybe they could divert the millions to the elementary schools so we wouldn't have to cut public schools.

College sport is WAY out of line. Kids don't go to college to study - and all the faciltities, fuel and crepe paper create mountains of waste, huge operating budgets spent on anything but learning, cheerleaders who spend their time learning how shake it instead of how to shake it up and THINK. Our competition (China , Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada take all those big programs OUT of the schools. People join clubs that are not part of the university. ENough of the semi-pro deal in college. The professional football league uses the unversities as their farm leagues where players risk their health and most never graduate and most never play in the pros either -and they do it all for free! At least MLB has the decenc to invest in farm leagues....

Nader is right, but this country can only think of its entertainment and TV revenues. The colleges are being used by big money - and the public of course buys in....

DeeToo of SC 6:11PM March 24, 2011