US Today has just published the 2012 version of the NCAA Football coaches salary database. And what we see is hard to believe. As they state only "six years ago 42 major college football coaches made at least $1 million. Today, 42 make at least $2 million." Coaches salaries in FBS schools are up 12% over last season and have increased an eye-whopping 70% since 2006. Alabama's Nick Saban is the highest paid at $5.5 million.
This is amazing! Institutions of higher education are paying enormous sums to coaches, who have no academic background, to run a football program, which should at best be an activity for students to spend their free time in a healthy way. Well, that ideal is long gone. I have mentioned that numerous times in the past. But why is the monster NCAA still growing that fast? College Football is popular for a long time and the growth rates in media attention and TV contracts is far from what is going on with coaches salaries.
Is something fundamentally wrong with the labor market for FBS coaches? In the past we used to see coaches move from the collegiate level to the NFL because of greater job opportunities. Obviously, this could change. Data shows that--on average--colleges do not profit financially from their sports programs. There is also some evidence that running large sport programs can influence student achievements. It is still debated whether it is fair to leave participating students without financial compensation. Looking at the current figures in terms of coaches wages we see that, for whatever reason, colleges pay enormous sums for something they might not actually benefit from. Rents seem to be generated - and as for now it seems as they are almost exclusively shared with the coaches. Most likely this a result of the non-competitive character of the BCS system.
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