Calhoun and the Money

The economy sucks. I know this because I can't find a job. I can't find a job because companies don't have it in their budget. I'm not the only one. There are millions of us out there like us. And companies are not the only ones hurting in their budgets. States are dying too. Now a lot of them are hurting for various decisions and some of it is just flat out bad policy by state leaders. One of those states that is hurting in the state of Connecticut. And Jim Calhoun is by far the highest paid employee in the state. A reporter asked Jim Calhoun if he thought it was fair. Calhoun being Calhoun of course thought it was and the question is, is it?

Calhoun said he brought more to that school then he was paid. My initial inkling would that's accurate. But then there are those stubborn facts. As was reported in the Hartford Courant by Matthew Kaufman the $12 million is a revenue-only figure not a net profit. And it combines the direct basketball money with all department revenue. Also reported by the Courant was that only $7.3 million in revenue directly attributable to the men's basketball team from such sources as tickets, royalties, sponsorships, sports camps and alumni contributions. Add that to the Corporate sponsorship contracts that are not signed with a team but with an the athletic department. Those deals account for 20 million and figures that the men's team can access 5 million of that total. The school reported over $6.1 million in direct expenses to the team for travel, equipment, salaries and things like that. So from direct revenue and direct expenses you have a meager net of 1.2 million. (Ahh almost Calhouns Salary isn't it?) Now you have the 12 million revenue share which they don't break down by sport in Storrs. There is also the 18.8 million in Athletic expenses shelled out by the school that again they don't break down by sport. And they haven't said if basketball is even in that money. It could be that they get a cut or it could be they don't get a cut at all. Now all of this information in the Courant story would back up Calhouns overall statement (if not the exact amount) he provides more money than he gets. So the facts are in Calhoun's corner.

Then as Alumni and other will point out there is so much more. The school is on the map because of Calhoun. Before he went there it was a joke of a basketball program and it's football was 1AA. Did anyone outside of Connecticut go to the school? Now the football program is getting better by the year. Would of they moved up to 1-A and would that even be possible without the success of the basketball team? I would say no.

And as much as academics won't want to admit it, athletics make academics better. UConn is now a tier 1 school according to USNews and World Reports Rankings. When I was looking at schools many moons ago it not anywhere that close. Has it become a better school because more students want to go there because of the sports teams? I would say yes.

The Houston Chronicle talked about UConn in a story about the USNews rankings,- In 2007 the university received 21,080 applications for 3,200 spots, up from 13,800 five years earlier. Since 1995 the number of out-of-state students enrolling has doubled to 30 percent, and both graduation and retention rates have consistently improved.

Now there are numerous issues there including a state cash infusion to purposely up the rankings and I'm sure those rankings helped but there have been numerous studies that have shown that sports do in fact help schools academics. College sports are a big part of being a student and for a lot of students and alumni they want to root for competitive teams.

I will use my school as a point. Appalachian State won the Division 1-AA National Championship in 2005. The next year we had 10,000 more applicants. The next year we won again and again the number of applicants went up. It allowed the school to be more selective and getting a smarter student. The victories also gave the school more money in fundraising and merchandise licensing.

The same thing has happened to UConn. So yes Calhoun gets paid a lot but his overall impact on the school nationwide on it's reputation and it's academics seems almost to be a value. As it is on it's revenue. College sports aren't part of state bureaucracies. They are part of the capital market and Calhoun is going to be get paid somewhere so as long as he's not bankrupting the school, which he is not, he deserves to get paid what he can.