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[masked_krusader]

I even live in America, and I call soccer, Football.  This national obsession is ridiculous.  The days leading up to the Superbowl, there was only news about football.  Because apparently that's the only thing that happens here.

[RedKing]

* timferius googles "average american university coach pay"

* timferius clicks link regarding college basketball

"Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, for example, made about $4.7 million a year, as of 2012, according to a USA Today report" (Source)

* timferius spits coffee everywhere, slaying his computer

To be fair, Duke is a private school that cranks out a lot of doctors, lawyers and academia who go on to make metric shittons of money and donate it back to the school. The school's endowment outstrips the GDP of small nations. And Coach K has 3 national titles to his credit, 1000 career wins, and has coached the US Olympic Team to a gold medal. He's an outlier (and for the record, he made $9.6 million this year), making almost twice as much as the next highest guy on the list (Kentucky's John Calipari).

College athletics is a big part of alumni fundraising, like it or not. And basketball is a HUGE, *HUGE* component of that here on Tobacco Road. Duke alumni couldn't give two shits about the football team (even though they're actually pretty good the last few years), but the b-ball team is sacred.

(Full disclosure: I live about 15 minutes from Duke University, though I am not an alum, nor particularly inclined to root for the Blue Devils.)

[FearfulJesuit]

University of Oklahoma student here. It's easy to forget that for the really large schools that pay their coaches their own weight in Benjamins, big sports programs like football are often net moneymakers because the licensing and ticket sales are so lucrative. (This is true of football at OU. Yeah, our coach makes $850k $5mil a year apparently, but since the whole thing is neutral at worst and subsidizing my education at best, I'm not going to complain.)

There are a lot of colleges in the US that bleed money into their athletic programs, but they're often schools that are big enough that they have to have sports, but not so big that their sports teams can be commodified for millions.

[RedKing]

University of Oklahoma student here. It's easy to forget that for the really large schools that pay their coaches their own weight in Benjamins, big sports programs like football are often net moneymakers because the licensing and ticket sales are so lucrative. (This is true of football at OU. Yeah, our coach makes $850k a year, but since the whole thing is neutral at worst and subsidizing my education at best, I'm not going to complain.)

There are a lot of colleges in the US that bleed money into their athletic programs, but they're often schools that are big enough that they have to have sports, but not so big that their sports teams can be commodified for millions.

Stoops actually makes $5 mil, according to USA Today (http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/football/coach). Which, considering their propensity to choke in big games, and the lack of a national title in 15 years....seems a bit high. (I'm good friends with a couple of OU alumni, and my alma mater doesn't have a football program so I became an "adopted" Sooner.)

But yeah, people have to look at college athletics for what it is -- a business. Those merch licensing fees do eventually make their way back into the classroom in one fashion or another. And going to a school with a dominant athletic program can help to create a sense of loyalty and pride in one's alma mater, which in turn encourages donations later in life. Duke alumni give back buckets of cash because come basketball season, they can strut around wearing their Duke hoodies.

And unlike faculty, coaches do not get tenure (unless your last name is Shula, Bryant, Bowden or Paterno). They must perform or get tossed out on their well-paid butts.

[FearfulJesuit]

Wait, really? Damn, that's a lot. Maybe he'll endow a scholarship or two in his dotage.

[RedKing]

The retail marketplace for college licensed merchandise in 2012 was estimated at $4.62 billion, according to The Collegiate Licensing Company, which tracks such things.

So yeah, it's a big damn pie and coaching salaries are a tiny slice.

[Rolan7]

It's a lot of revenue, but I don't think it's profitable.  Here's an article from 2012 I saw earlier today:
http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Myth-College-Sports-Are-a-Cash-Cow2.aspx

Assuming it was correct, the vast majority of university football programs in the US operate at a significant financial loss.  I think that participating in this sports nonsense is just a requirement for universities of a certain size.  In a lot cases it's supposed to "drive enrollment", even though that seems like a horrible criterion for choosing a school to attend.  It's just not... academic.

I did like the xkcd, and I want to politely respect sports in general, but the university sports scene be fucked yo.

[Bauglir]

http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Myth-College-Sports-Are-a-Cash-Cow2.aspx

December 30, 1899

Uhhhhhhhhh...

More importantly, that seems about right (though I'm by no means an expert, so my opinions are worth slightly less than the electricity used to transmit them).

[Rolan7]

What says 1899, the forum software?  Appears right to me, wacky.

[KingofstarrySkies]

_{^{why is it so cold}}

[miauw62]

_{^{why is it so cold}}

Jesus man, you left something so small I literally cannot see it.

Indecent exposure is a crime, you know [/insanelydumbjoke]

[KingofstarrySkies]

...

Whoops.

...I think this is the part where the Forum gets devoured by a black hole.

[Bauglir]

What says 1899, the forum software?  Appears right to me, wacky.

The linked article's publication date, unless it's a placeholder that's supposed to be replaced by a script I haven't given permission to run.

[Yoink]

Of course, just when I was having a nice, relaxing train ride some incredibly smelly dude has to sit right behind me. >.>

[nenjin]

Darkest Dungeons. Love the game but my god is it rage inducing. The randomness is so random it's abusive. Nothing like watching your whole party get critted then whiff the next three attacks. Nothing like having the first fight of the mission leave you all mostly dead. Nothing like the fucking tutorial leaving you so crippled your chances of finishing your first run are infinitesimal. Ermahgerd, there is hard, and then there's just fuck you.