The Joys of Checkbook Sports

[Water Pony]

FIX - Wall Street Journal
By CARL BIALIK AND JASON FRY

On College-Coaching Carousel, Big Paydays and Few Hardships
April 13, 2006

John Calipari and Rick Barnes coached two of college basketball's most-talented teams last season and both reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. Now, with a little help from North Carolina State, they've parlayed that success into pay raises.

N.C. State is eager to match the success of Research Triangle rivals Duke and North Carolina, and the administration has decided the way to the Final Four is through a brand-name coach. But so far, the hunt has been one big tease. "N.C. State's 'Aim for the Stars' basketball coaching search has succeeded in only one respect so far: It has made two already rich coaches even richer," Scott Fowler writes1 in the Charlotte Observer. "Rick Barnes from Texas and John Calipari from Memphis received overtures from the Wolfpack, considered them, flirted with the school mightily in the case of Calipari, and ultimately stayed put with major salary increases. Who will N.C. State make rich next? Maybe it will be Louisiana State's John Brady, who has said he will listen if schools contact him. At some point, the Wolfpack will make a coach rich and actually employ him, too."

Raleigh News and Observer columnist Caulton Tudor retorts that there's nothing wrong with aiming high: "State right now has an opportunity to replace a good coach with a great one, and it's going to take a great one to compete against Duke and Carolina."

Mr. Barnes may be a great coach, but he's staying put in Austin, after receiving a reported4 $400,000 salary increase. It was a no-brainer, Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington writes5: "He's made Texas such a good job now that only Duke or Kentucky or North Carolina or UCLA or a handful of others should be more appealing. Maybe the NBA, if Mike Montgomery's case at Golden State isn't lesson enough. Question: So why was Barnes' name so persistent in speculation about a school he just beat by 21 in the NCAAs?" (Mr. Calipari is also staying put; he'll sign a contract with a raise of about $200,000, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.)

College-hoops coaches always seem to get pay increases when their teams excel, but they never take pay cuts when their teams stink, Pat Forde notes7 on ESPN.com. "Signing a contract and actually honoring the agreement is for chumps," Mr. Forde writes; he outlines three rules for coaches looking to play this game the right way, including, "Expect knee-jerk windfalls after big seasons. Athletic directors -- some of whom rank among the worst businessmen on earth -- cravenly will comply. If they don't, walk away from your contract whenever you can find a better job."

Pro coaches don't have it so tough, either; the $10 million man, Phil Jackson, told Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers his coaching blunders have cost the Lakers about four games this season.