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Monday, July 17, 2006

Monday Morning Eye-Opener

"[T]he University of Louisville [has] signed football coach Bobby Petrino to a ten-year contract, worth at least $25.5 million on July 13. The university, which has raised tuition by levels thought only to exist in the professional leg-breaking industry over the past five or six years, is in the middle of what's being called the biggest financial commitment to football since Papa John's Cardinal Stadium was built. The new contract makes Petrino one of the highest paid coaches in college football today.

I call foul, and the reasons just keep mounting. Athletic director Tom Jurich said he fully expects Petrino to turn his back on other offers. Yeah, that seems to be an issue right there. After each of Petrino's three seasons at UofL, he had interviewed with other teams. First, it was Auburn, with whom Petrino spoke with in secret, lying at nearly every public turn he had...until he was caught. From there, it was on to Louisiana State, an interview Petrino took just a week after signing a contract extension pushing his guaranteed salary to $1 million a year.

That prompted Jurich to question whether or not to keep Petrino around at all. According to Jurich and Petrino, a refused $20 million offer from the NFL's Oakland Raiders from earlier this year is what pushed the hand for the big new deal. Yeah, I can imagine. The idea that [there] are loyalty bonuses in the contract worth $5 million seems a little ironic at this point, especially when the first $1 million is due June 30, 2007. What? The guy gets a million dollars for doing the first eleven months of a ten-year job? Did the Kentucky legislature come up with this math? I should have learned how to run a West Coast Offense.

Next, naturally, are the perks, including a $10,000 gas allowance. If I told you what I really thought about a guy making $2.5 million a year needing an allowance for anything, this article never would have passed review. Also included are the seemingly-obligatory county club membership and stadium suite, but my favorite has to be the rent-free use of football facilities for Petrino, to supplement his income running football camps. That is flat-out arrogance when the student body as a whole props up the athletic department, never minding what kind of "surplus" the department is currently running. Ah, yes, life as a student in a Division I-A school. Damn good thing they have public transportation in Louisville, cause you can burn an awful lot of gas sitting downtown, working your way through the red-light jungle. I'm not sure if you could burn $10k a year in gas, though, and especially when your sole purpose in the universe is to win twelve football games a year. Not in this universe, at any rate.

University President James Ramsey was gushing over the deal. No word on if he was jumping up and down on couches, screaming "I love Bobby Petrino!," but gushing nonetheless. Pleased as any man could be, with a fat new paycheck to sign on the university's behalf, Ramsey hopes for stability as a result of the contract, and went on to say the deal was a "huge statement," and that "stability in the athletic department is absolutely critical to me." That seems about right. When a school is willing to offer a $10,000 reward for an embarrassing graduation rate of 50% to any of their employees, academic or athletic, stability may be vital, but only for a few Saturdays out of the year."