Georgia officials absolutely did the right thing in giving football coach Mark Richt a contract extension and pay bump that will bring him a minimum of $2 million per season. College football is about capitalism after all, no matter what the NCAA and the well-intentioned folks with the Knight Foundation Commission say.

When major Division I athletic departments operate on $50 million budgets, when bowl games provide guarantees of up to $14 million, when TV networks keep upping the ante for broadcast rights, when the Louisiana-Monroes of the world can receive $400,000 for taking a beating, it's senseless to talk about bringing them back to a simpler, more fiscally responsible era.

That horse bolted out of the barn like Seabiscuit years ago. There's no way to grab it by the reins and bring it back.

So university presidents who enjoy the fruits of successful football programs have but one choice when it comes to the men who coach them.

Pay now in the form of a $2 million contract.

Pay later in the form of alumni discontent if the hotshot coach bolts for a better paying job.



Georgia president Michael Adams is well-aware of these dynamics, and not just because of all the angry mail he received over the dismissal of popular athletic director Vince Dooley. He's a member of the Knight Foundation Commission, a watchdog group of sorts that annually harrumphs about high coaching salaries and low graduation rates. At his core, however, he's a realist.

If he didn't show Richt the money and soon, then it was very possible the beloved coach would show up as a head coach in either Tallahassee or Coral Gables before too long.

"I think (Richt's raise) is prudent despite the numbers," Adams said Wednesday. "We want to compete at the highest level."

Sports agents always talk about getting fair market value for their clients. It's a phrase that conjures up images of the overly moussed Drew Rosenhaus doing his oily used-car salesman act with Terrell Owens.

But if Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis can command $3-4 million in his first college season, then Richt belongs in this new, higher tax bracket.


…If Tennessee folks really think Phil Fulmer should get $2.05 million per season, then Richt also ought to have a decimal point and a little extra because he's 4-1 against the Vols. Heck, first-year Florida coach Urban Meyer agreed to a $2 million before he beat Georgia last October. Of course, beating Georgia became boilerplate language as far back as Steve Spurrier's last contract revision.

Although it's unsettling to see a $2 million coach (Meyer) whose crowning achievement to date was a win in the Outback Bowl, it was interesting to look at the track records of some of the other multi-millionaires pictured on the front of Thursday's sports section. USC's Pete Carroll won an undisputed national championship and shared another with LSU. Texas' Mack Brown took it home this year, while his longtime nemesis, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, had been there and won that. Fulmer captured the national title in 1998...