Throwing money at the problem

Not to poach on Joe Rexrode’s turf covering MSU, but didn’t the university get a bit ahead of itself with its $600,000 per year raise for football coach Mark Dantonio?

Dantonio has done well. A raise is not out of line. But the size of this one makes one wonder if this has more to do with MSU’s past than its future.

As Joe reported in the LSJ Dec. 27, “Dantonio has signed a new contract that will increase his total annual compensation from $1.13 million a year to $1.8 million a year. That moves him from eighth in the league to fourth, according to the published reports of the other coaches’ deals.

“His contract remains a five-year rollover deal, which means it extends each year to remain at five years. But if Dantonio is still MSU’s coach through Jan. 15, 2016, the new deal calls for him to receive a $2 million bonus.”

Dantonio has taken the Spartans to 2 consecutive bowl games. This year, the Spartans did not lose to a team that they should not have -- a major advance over the work of predecessors John L. Smith and Bobby Williams.

And since Dantonio has MSU on course to dwell in the Big Ten’s upper half, should not his pay be there, too?

All good points. Still, the size of this raise carries the whiff of uncertainty, even fear. If MSU didn’t pony up now, would Dantonio decamp for better pastures, as Nick Saban did a decade ago?

But, did anyone at MSU ask the question, “Can we keep this guy for $1.5 million a year, rather than $1.8 million?”

Remember when John L. Smith was hired? MSU swooped in and took him from Louisville, giving him a contract worth about $1.6 million a year. This was double what he was earning at Louisville.

Then Athletic Director Ron Mason defended the amount as market-based. That Smith flamed out here and currently isn’t earning $1.6 million as a head coach at any DI program certainly tarnishes Mason’s credibility on that score. Dantonio, by word and deed, looks like the much better bet.

Still, every time universities get a little loose with the checkbook, they put themselves in a bind with the fans. Bigger salaries create a need, eventually, for higher ticket prices, higher concession costs, high-priced luxury suites and on-field success (regardless of what happens off the field).

If university leaders nationwide were spending their own money and were requiring their athletic departments to be run like a true business (with “profits” returned to the corporate HQ), it’s fair to think these salaries wouldn’t be as large as they are. And if the money’s down, so, too, is the pressure.

Please understand, I’m not one of these folks out to destroy college football as we know it. My alma mater (the University of Oklahoma) just paid its football coach $3 million because he stayed around long enough. Bob Stoops’ teams have helped OU treble its athletic earnings and its athletic budget. I try to make at least one MSU and one OU game a year.

If Dantonio sees continued success, MSU can expect a similar dynamic: more money coming in and more pressure building up.

But isn’t it the job of university leaders to keep some control over these pressures? I’m not sure that’s happening in East Lansing, in Norman, Okla., or anywhere in big-time college football these days.

Comments

[JRS]

This is about both the past and the future and a statement to him
that MSU is serious in wanting Dantonio to stay. It is just the nature of big time college sports
these days that if you have a successful program you have got to protect your investment in a program from potential poachers at other institutions. There is no guarantee of course with how
any coach is going to do in the years ahead, there is always a risk aspect that you have to take.

[Jerry]

I agree with your assessment. A $500,000 raise? The athlethic department is in red ink, costs are being cut everywhere, and games are not even sold out!!

[arthur sido]

I just got back from a Chamber of Commerce luncheon with Athletic Director Mark Hollis and he said that the football program is 76% of the athletic department’s revenue. Take away a chunk of that revenue because the team stinks and that cripples the athletic department and the other sports that depend on football’s revenue. Good coaches are a hot commodity, so if MSU wants to have a quality program they are going to have to pony up to keep Dantonio happy or someone else will.