The snowball is rolling (or is it a snow-job?). You can’t expect a Million Dollar Coach to do everything himself and you can’t expect his assistants to work cheap. Ain’t it thrilling to see the commitment the University is willing to make for greatness — of some kind.
Recall that Jamie Koch said there will be no raises for faculty until the Legislature pays for them, but we’ll find the money somehow for all the solid gold coaches we want. mjh
ABQjournal: NCAA Basketball: Alford’s Top Aide, Who Will Make $250,000, Is Learning His Away Around By Mark Smith, Journal Staff Writer
Craig Neal, the top assistant to recently hired University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach Steve Alford, held his first workout with the Lobos on Tuesday.
UNM athletic director Paul Krebs said Neal’s base salary is $150,000 per year with a total compensation of $250,000.
Asked where the added revenue is coming from, Krebs said the details of Neal’s contract are still being finalized and should be released within a week or so.
Former coach Ritchie McKay’s three-man coaching staff— combined— made around $268,000 a year. [mjh: so one guy will get the same money as three. And there will be more than one guy.]
Reactions on Campus
UNM could get 225 tuitions, or 1 coach, by Caleb Fort, Daily Lobo
One head basketball coach costs UNM as much as 10 full professors.
“I think it seems ridiculous,” student Trisstin Maroney said. “Think of what else you could spend the money for his salary on – pretty much anything else.”
Steve Alford’s $975,000 salary could also pay for 17 assistant professors or tuition and fees for 225 students.
Coach’s big salary doesn’t add up to a better record – Opinion
Editor,
Basketball does not interest me, but a $975,000 salary does. That amounts to $37.50 per student per year, which is an increase of $18.27 over former head coach Ritchie McKay. These funds could have been used for a tuition break or a raise for faculty. After seeing Steve Alford’s salary and paying the recent tuition increase, I wondered why this was necessary.
After examining the records of the two coaches – a painful process for someone who isn’t a sports fan – I found that McKay won 54 percent of the time at UNM. Alford’s career record has him winning 63 percent of the time. If these records are applied to next season, statistically speaking, Alford will win three games that McKay would have lost. Given the difference in pay between the two coaches, those three wins will cost $158,333 each.
When you consider that McKay is still being paid $200,000 per year by UNM for terminating his contract early, the figure jumps to $225,000 per extra win for the next three years. Is a quarter of $1 million really worth it for winning a basketball game?
Clayton Meredith
UNM student
Athletics unfairly wastes students’ tuition money – Opinion
Editor,
I find it deplorable the way UNM has been squandering students’ hard-earned tuition money. The first shock was learning that Ritchie McKay was being paid $500,000 a year by UNM. Next came the $600,000 it took to fire McKay, so we could get a new coach instead of letting McKay’s contract run its course. Finally, as if that wasn’t bad enough, UNM announced that it is going to pay the new head coach, Steve Alford, $975,000.
It seems strange that a so-called academic institution would pay its basketball coach 10 times as much as a full professor. It wasn’t even a month ago that the Legislature passed a bill to ensure that students currently receiving the Lottery Scholarship will be exempt from future tuition increases.
Perhaps before suffering yet another tuition hike, it is time for a complete public audit of the athletics programs at UNM. Maybe then the students can decide whether or not they are willing to pay the price for a winning sports team. We could determine once and for all if college athletics are the big moneymaker they claim to be, or just an increasingly deep pit for all of our tuition money.
Andrew Collord
UNM student