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Thursday, November 23, 2006

Dadaism, Florida Style

'Many Florida State University football fans were relieved when it was announced that the coach in charge of the team's offense had resigned. It looked like the assistant coach had taken one for the team after an embarrassing shutout loss to Wake Forest.

A day later, though, anger kicked in when it was learned that the coach's apparent selflessness was not that at all. He left with a severance payout of $537,000.

Nice payout for a guy who wasn't cutting it.

It would have been bad enough if this was just any assistant coach. But it wasn't. The assistant was Jeff Bowden, son of iconic head coach Bobby Bowden.

Bowden had been criticized for a feckless offense in recent years, but his dad — whose contract is up for renewal in 2008 — defended him.

"It's just amazing," Bobby Bowden said the day after his son's resignation. "When things go wrong the first thing they blame is the offensive coordinator. That's kind of the game we Americans play."

The nepotism here is tragic. What kind of position is the elder Bowden in? The whole world seems to see his son's flaws, but he doesn't. Then the son gets paid to take a hike.

The only good news here is that the funds are not, directly, paid by the taxpayers. The Florida football boosters will pay Bowden with funds they generate from concession sales. Why the state-funded university doesn't use the money for itself, as opposed to paying coaches like this, is another issue.

The Bowden story broke the same day USA Today wrote about the outrageous salaries and perks Division I coaches receive. It revealed Bobby Bowden's annual compensation at about $1.6 million, including a salary of $352,000.

Bowden is one of eight coaches in the Atlantic Coast Conference making about seven figures. Oklahoma's Bob Stoops leads coaches with annual compensation of $3.45 million.

And this is collegiate athletics?

As for the Bowdens' windfall, all Floridians are victims of this conflict of interest. The collaboration of FSU President T.K. Wetherell, who signed the severance agreement with FSU Athletic Director Dave Hart, makes this even worse.

Is this the kind of lesson FSU hopes to teach its students? Get a job with dad, perform poorly, then get big bucks to leave?'



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