Forbes.com Is Just Making Crap Up
So I fire up my e-mail this morning, and polluting my in-box is an "important message" from one of my USC buddies. The only thing in the e-mail is this link to a Forbes.com article naming the "The Best (And Worst) College Football Coaches For the Buck." It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that USC's Pete Carroll is listed as one of the "underpaid" coaches, and Notre Dame's Charlie Weis is listed as one of the "overpaid" coaches. Of course, Forbes based its "determination" on Coach Weis' 10-year contract extension, "reportedly worth between $30 and $40 million over the length of the deal."
Here was my e-mail response to my buddy:
Steve,It pains me a little to link to Mike Rothstein's work at the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, because he's an idiot sometimes and I've called him out for it here at OC Domer. But his reporting on the Weis salary issue is right on the money and needs to get more play in order to debunk the widespread misinformation that is out there about Coach Weis.
Forbes has been making fools of themselves lately, publishing a bunch of embarrassing sports-related articles. The one that got the biggest splash was their proclamation that Nick Saban is the "most powerful coach in sports."
Not Pete Carroll. Or Charlie Weis. Or Joe Pa. Or Coach K or Phil Jackson or Joe Torre. Nick "Total Failure in Miami who is a known Liar" Saban!
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0901/092.html
Thus, I take what Forbes has to say about college football not very seriously. The article you send is (1) yet another in a long line of cheap shots at CW, and (2) factually inaccurate. People have been wildly overestimating CW's salary ever since he signed his "Monster" contract extension. University tax records for 2007 showed that CW was paid just $598,000 in salary to coach the Irish football team. Incidentally, the University actually paid Ty Willingham $650,000 over the same period to NOT coach the Irish football team.
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/BLOGS02/126895704
Yes, last year was tough. But at $500K Coach W is not overpaid.
[P.S., We still have a couple of spots open in the OC Domer fantasy football league. Drop me an e-mail (available through my "profile" link on the right) if you'd like to play.]
4 comments:
yeah, but that 500K is just base salary, not counting all the other extras. CW banks a whole lot more than 500K from ND.
Still you're right. He's not overpaid relative to other football coaches.
He may get more from Adidas, or from speaking fees (much of which goes to Hannah & Friends), but I don't think he's getting a lot more from the University.
I used to get Forbes magazine when Malcolm Forbes was writing his opinions & 'cut your losses philosophy'. But ND has the best coaches, maybe not the best offensive line, yet. I think Charlie is ND's biggest asset.
With the university extras it tallies up to about 700k, but you're still absolutely right that he can't be considered overpaid in light of what DI coaches make now.
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/SPORTS/805220308/-1/SPORTS03
Post a Comment