University Presidents don't get paid enough for trying to manage sports programs and maintain academic standards.

However, I chose the wrong profession--a university president.

JTGibson, retired
former president
Alabama A&M University
Huntsville, AL

During an interview on ESPN Sportscenter today, an accounting professor at UT decried what he described as an exorbitant salary during a time when departments at UT are being asked to "cut a few hundred thousand". The UT athletic director retorted that the football program had "contributed" over $6M to the university (out of revenues of $87M). One of the talking heads stated that the accounting department would receive $5 million when it filled a stadium with 80,000 people.

I think we have to realize that college sports are now big-time business, and to espouse amateurism and the ideal of the student/athlete are just hypocrisy. I would love to see a Heisman competition for the best accounting student in the country (along with weeks of speculation and hourly TV analysis).

Dr. J

Back-of-the-envelope calculation: If the average, Nobel Prize winning faculty member has a salary of, say, $250,000 a year, then one $5 million football coach is worth the equivalent of 20 Nobel prize winners. Of course, I don't really know the salaries of Nobel Prize winners, so they may be more or less than $250,000. Regardless of the presumed sources of these funds, it's a telling institutional trade-off.

Whether public higher education in Texas were well funded or in the current belt-tightening mode, a $5 million coach's salary is outrageous. Mack Brown has for a decade fielded winning teams that fill a stadium that now seats over 100,000, to be sure. But what would be truly impressive is if he would agree to accept, say, $1M, and have the Athletics Dept donate the remainder to endow a Mack Brown scholarship fund. (And it would be instructive to understand the accounting for the $6M contribution to the University.)

Perhaps Congressional action that would limit any college salaries to $1 million in any institution that receives Federal funds would be the answer. Like the financial industry, colleges and universities don't seem able to control themselves. Only a nationwide initiative could solve the problem.

Mack Brown is a classy guy who deserves success--and high pay--as much as anyone. But I have to agree with previous comments--that $5-million is far too much, when professors with hard-earned Ph.D.s are paid $50K and are told that there will be no raises because of "hard times." Let Boards of Regents everywhere balance a concern for athletic excellence with a concern for academic excellence as well. Put some of those millions into academic salaries, too.

Coach Brown best fill his gym bag with loot now while the gittin's good, 'cause on January 7 Coach Saban's CRIMSON TIDE gonna ROLL over his itty-bitty Longhorns in the BCS national championship game. Roll Tide ROLL!!!

P. J. Tramdack

I have a real difficult time understanding the justification for these salaries in athletics because the athletic department claims to be separate from the university. Last I checked they are part of the university and draw in resources using the University of Texas as the institutional pillar.

Fan of activities

Let's just be direct about it. Higher education is a big business that has lost its priorities and mission to educate students. The motto of most schools has become Omnes por Pecunia and the mission statemsnt "et WIFM". Student success is a brochure at most schools; not a relaity with an average national graduation rate just slighty above 50% in 6 years in 4 year schools and about 30% in 3-4 years in 2 year schools. We are falling behind in the world as a result.

And if one uses income revenue as a way of gaugung worth, the academic serfs we call adjunct composition and math teachers should be paid in gold since the required courses they teach provide the bulk of revenue and the gateway courses for the entire school.

Not hiding my comments behind any anonymity here - Neal Raisman nealr@greatservicematters.com

Record federal spending with no end in sight, taxes funding ACORN, my salary was just cut by 4%, 2010 health insurance increased for my family by another $100 to $565 per month, and my departmental budget is in the second year of a freeze. And a football coach makes $5 million dollars per year.

The world is crazy and getting more so. I'm going to go home and hug my wife and kids and say a prayer of thanks that we're still here, because how our society endures is well beyond my understanding. Merry Christmas everyone.

Maybe $5million is not an exorbitant salary to a Regent. If that's the case, they must laugh their blanks off at what they pay the college President and the rest of the University faculty and what they and corporate America get in return. The teaching and research of faculty bring in more than the paltry 80,000 football fans contribute a few weeks each year. Including accounting that credentials some of the best accountants in the country who help corporations and non-profits keep track of their dollars. Engineering, Natural Science,and Business at Texas is corporate Texas' equivalent of the NCAA revenue generating sports (basketball, baseball, football) to the professional sports teams---low fee to free farm/training system to pick their star revenue generating employees/players from. If athletics is a self-sufficient entity, maybe they should be leasing the land Belmont Hall (the stadium and "classrooms" underneath it) stands on, from the University and paying to use the University's trademark/name. Maybe the "Regents" would come with a leasing and trademark contract based on percentage. If athletics makes $87million, pay the University 20%. If athletics makes $10million, pay the University 20%. If they go in the red (never in cold day in hell in Texas), they owe the University 20% of 0. Mack Brown is great, but give me a break. This is almost as bad (well maybe not) as justifying a $54million bonus to the CEO of Goldman Sachs. The goose who laid golden eggs would be worth $54million. Not a CEO who's poop smells like everyone else and is not golden.

Mack Brown is great, but give me a break. This is almost as bad (well maybe not) as justifying a $54million bonus to the CEO of Goldman Sachs. The goose who laid golden eggs would be worth $54million. Not a CEO whose poop smells like everyone else and is not golden.

Good grief! Football has no place in a university. Disband the team and fire the coach.

Mack isn't the problem at all. He's just doing his job. The problem is that some NCAA FBS/I-AA college football (and to a lesser extent basketball) schools need to be reined in.

I wonder often if it is the very nature of these sports, professionally, that makes the college versions such money-crazed behemoths. After all, Division I and II college football/basketball are pretty much what most people want: true student athletes, friendly but intense competition, and many devoted fans. Actually, many FBS/I-AA teams seem to be like this, too.

It's the very few, branded, media-saturated, insanely wealthy schools that are out of control: insert your favorite Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12, and Pac 10 teams here. These are also the schools that tend to produce the crop of new professional athletes for the NBA and NFL. When's the last time somebody dropped out of a D-I or II school to play in the NFL? Some FBS and Division I-AA college football and basketball teams seem to have become the "farm system" for professional sports teams and so they behave like them, with millionaire coaches and media empires.