Hater in the House

So I thought I would go ahead and call myself a hater since that is what most will say after they read this. Plus, I'm not really going to be PC in this either, so here it goes. And Bryan, I hope your happy. So what is up with Pat Summitt getting a $300,000 raise to put her up at $1.325 million a year averaged out over the next few years. It comes at a time when Bruce Pearl was given a raise up to $1.3 million over the next few years. First off, let me set things straight. In my opinion, Summitt is definitely the best women's coach in the game. And she deserves to be paid so. She has won 6 NC's and over 900 games, but really hasn't done much lately. In a year where you can arguably say that her team underachieved, she was given a $300,000 raise to be bumped up just over Pearl. An argument could be made that she deserves to be paid more than Pearl because she has done more in her career. Well, let's look at some figures to take a look to see if she deserves all she receives.

First, if you take a look at the athletic budget from last year, there are only two sports that support the University by making money. Mainly, football by bringing in over $18 million in profit, followed by Men's basketball with about $1.2 million. Women's basketball is the only other sport with profit of $26,000. If you look across the country, this is going to be true at probably almost every school. But looking at UT's budget only, how can a Women's athletic department that only turns $26,000 a year profit in one sport, and deficits in every other, and receives money from the Men's athletic department to help support itself, afford to give a $300,000 raise to it's Women's basketball coach who really hasn't done anything lately? What about Bruce Pearl getting his raise you ask? Well, Pearl turned over $1.2 million in profit, overachieved greatly in his first year, was instrumental in raising the money for the new practice facility, is bringing in a Top 5 class in '06, and is still at about the average pay for a Men's college basketball coach.

Second, Summitt absolutely deserves to be the highest paid coach in Women's Basketball. But the big issue here is how it was handled. Summitt was quoted as being upset when Pearl got his raise to $1.3 million. The Women's AD, Joan Croanin, and President Petersen then got together and instigated Summitt's raise. Croanin was then caught on a morning sports talk show stating the one of the main reasons Summitt got her raise was because of Pearl's raise. WRONG REASON. What's going to happen if Pearl continues his success, and gets another raise in about 2 years that puts him well above $1.5 million? Will Summitt then demand another raise to equal Pearl's? Anybody with a financial background can realize that UT can't afford to pay her higher in a market that isn't that strong to begin with. And while I'm at it, I don't ever want to hear about the Women averaging more attendance than the Men again. While the numbers were close when Buzz was here, the Lady Vols consistently give away tons of tickets to their games. You want to see the biggest difference in revenue for the two teams, that is the first place to look. It's amazing how much more money you can make when all those in attendance are paying to be there. So there it is. Go ahead and hate away!