Texas Tech prepares for 8% funding cuts, cut raises, pay freeze -coach gets $500k/yr raise

[The Straight Story]

Texas Tech faculty not happy about Tuberville’s $500K raise

Back on Jan. 18, Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville received a $500,000 raise to send his salary from $1.5 million to $2 million-per-year through 2015. He was also given a one-year extension on his contract.

Such a raise might seem appropriate for some. Tuberville is an experienced coach, and in his first year, led the Red Raiders to an 8-5 record and a Ticket City Bowl win over Northwestern.

But, that raise has angered some Texas Tech faculty members who have been forced to take a pay freeze for 2011.

To prepare for an 8 percent reduction in state funding for education already in effect this year, Tech officials have cut $3 million in faculty raises.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/02/21/texas-tech-faculty-not-happy-about-tubervilles-500k-raise/

[gratuitous]

1. We-ahl, tahms are tough all over

And we can only give the football coach a token raise. If things was better, we'd take care of him a little more. As it is, I hope Coach Tuberville will stick it out and unnerstand that we'll make it worth his whahle. Sure hope it doesn't discourage the football team when they're playin' their football games this season to know that Coach Tuberville is only making an extra 500 thou. Shee-it, I can hear the Aggie and the Longhorn football fans laughing it up now.

Pistols up, y'all. Or whatever Tech's slogan is, as I ain't got the time or the inclination to look it up.

[RB TexLa]

2. That's what's nice about LSU, football takes no funds from the university or the state.

it's self funded by football revenue and we the boosters. So neither the taxpayers or the university has anything to bitch about or be concerned about.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Kinda the Green Bay Packers of college ball...

...Sounds like a good, healthy model...

[MadHound]

4. And the question is how much money does a successful coach bring in?

For many Division I schools, football and basketball pays the bills, not just for the entire athletic program, but also contributes revenue coming into the school as a whole. Big donors are impressed with a good football team and drop down money for the school. A good football team peaks public interest and enthusiasm, and sales of school gear goes up and up. And the money that each school gets for appearing in a bowl game, hundreds of thousands of dollars, helps fund the school as a whole, including the salaries of other professors and staff. Let's not forget that a robust athletic program also provides dozens of scholarships for disadvantaged kids who would otherwise not have a chance of attending college.

[msongs]

5. how bout cancel interscholastic athletics altogether and have intramurals instead? nt

[MadHound]

11. And where would schools make up the money that they would lose with such a move?

Division I athletics doesn't just get revenue that stays in the athletic department. TV revenue, ticket revenue, revenue derived from clothing and those team branded brik a brak (coffee mugs, backpacks and such) are used to fund the entire college, not just the athletic department. Not to mention the fact that school athletics attract, and are the deciding factor in many cases, lots of potential students. A high school grad, who has a lifetime attraction to Notre Dame for instance, gets two letters of acceptance, one from the University of Illinois, the other from Notre Dame. Which school is this fan going to choose? Yeah, probably Notre Dame, all other things being equal.

Furthermore, are you willing to so casually toss aside all those disadvantaged students' chance to get a college education? Dozens and dozens of economically disadvantaged students are thus able to parlay their ability to put a ball in a hoop, or smack it out of a ballpark, or run faster than anybody else into a college degree that they can later use to provide a comfortable living for themselves, and maybe, just maybe, change the world for better. Take away those scholarships and all those kids are left behind, consigned to the same poor, hard life as their parents.

[Hangingon]

8. At a school like UT Austin football funds itself

and other sports too. Doing away with the sports program would cause alums to quit giving

[hobbit709]

6. That's because football is more important, doncha know.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. Just out of curiosity, what does an assistant prof of physics earn

per year at Texas Tech? Might be an interesting contrast, methinks.

[hfojvt]

9. how about a math prof?

Because you know, math and science are soooo important for the future of America.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. My father lives in Lawrence, KS where he attended classes for many years

at the U. of Kansas. Acoording to what he told me on my last visit, the KU head football coach earns in excess of $1,000,000/year plus perks, while an assistant prof of physics earns just shy of $60,000/year. That is a sign of a seriously fucked-up society, imho.

[Dawson Leery]

12. With a fundamentalist belief on sports, one should not expect a serious edition in Texas.