I truly could NOT care less about sports. I have zero interest in professional, academic or amateur sports. No interest at all in sports. None the less, I believe physical activity is vital. By all means, get out and be active, including participating in sports. I play volleyball every week with my friends.

My revulsion is in sports as a religion and business. My disgust is over sports for money and the corporate welfare that benefits sports. It sickens me that people get rich through sports — especially people who are not athletes themselves. It saddens me that fanatics know everything about sports trivia and less about the condition of the world. Our society squanders huge amounts of money, time, attention, focus and brain-power on corporate sports (in which I include anything involving pay).

Am I suggesting that a gifted athlete who works very hard to improve himself or herself deserves no money for that effort. Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Do it because you love it. Do it because it makes you healthier, stronger, more attractive. You want to get rich in the process?

Oh, but how can anyone become the world’s greatest [insert sporting position of your choice] without compensation. Well, frankly, I don’t care, but I suspect love and devotion will take you pretty far. You want a dump truck full of money, too?

My bile has risen because UNM just hired a coach for nearly ONE MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. A coach, someone who “loves the game.” Countless people believe one coach can easily be worth so much money. People who won’t make one million dollars in their lifetimes still believe one person is so much more valuable than they are themselves. That’s some self-esteem.

The Million-Dollar-Coach will make $400,000 more than the new President of the University. You might think that says enough about the priorities of our state educational institution — the coach of a handful of athletes is worth almost twice what the leader of the entire university makes. But don’t ignore that there is very limited money for everyone else at the university. The University is a community of students, teachers and other staff (and our families). Everyone in this community is important. We all need some support, some give and take, a share of the pie. In comes a big pig and there’s less for the rest of us. Simple, isn’t it? I have to go vomit now.
mjh

PS- I’ve been “temporary part-time faculty” at UNM for almost 20 years (without common benefits). The pay for all my colleagues at the Division of Continuing Education was drastically cut some years ago; we’ve never quite come back. Even if none of this were true, I’d still hate sports more than religion.

Daily Lobo – Alford to rake in $975,000 a year by Steven Fernandez

[Steve] Alford, officially introduced as the new UNM men’s basketball head coach on Friday, will be making an annual salary of $975,000 – nearly twice the amount of former head coach Ritchie McKay, who was fired Feb. 22. …

David Schmidly, UNM’s next president, said Alford is a great hire for the basketball team.

Schmidly will make more than $500K, by Caleb Fort

The Board of Regents approved the five-year contract for Schmidly, UNM’s next president, on Friday.

Annually, Schmidly will get a $380,000 salary, $120,000 deferred compensation, a $42,000 car allowance and a $45,000 housing allowance. [mjh: $587,000-a-year, about 60% of the coach’s salary.]

Louis Caldera, UNM’s former president, had a salary of $293,000.

Bill to increase pay for part-time faculty by Bryan Gibel

The best-paid instructors in the sciences make about $8,000 per course on Main Campus, while instructors at UNM’s Valencia County branch earn less than $2,000, Niame said. … [mjh: I make about $400 for a workshop; I made about $4000 in 2006.]

Niame said there are about 1,200 faculty members who teach part-time in the UNM system, but they aren’t specifically included in the budget.

“We do not exist in UNM’s budget, and we’re not considered when the Board of Regents looks at the budget,” she said. “We’re not considered true employees. We work semester-to-semester, which means we get no benefits, and we have no job security. We’re nonentities in a lot of ways.” …

Jamie Koch, president of the Board of Regents, said the University will not increase wages for part-timers out of its own budget.

“We’re not increasing salaries for part-time faculty,” he said.