[ARETE] Fw: Sport and Society - "Tis the Season

[richard crepeau]

 SPORT AND SOCIETY FOR ARETE

DECEMBER 3, 2021



‘Tis the season. . .for?

Money, Money, Money.

A friend of mine once asked me if I thought that increasing salaries in sports would ever slow down. I think he was talking primarily about baseball in which, what Bill Veeck called the high price of mediocrity seemed to pose, what would now be termed, an existential threat. I assured him there would be no change in the trend unless the 1930s were to return. He would then shake his head lamenting the certain death of sports and walk away.

I thought about him several times in the last few days as billions of dollars were falling from the sky all across the landscape of American sport. The price of victory apparently has no ceiling.

Where to begin?

College football seems like a good place to start adding up the dollars being shelled out to incoming and departing football coaches across the land. It is the season for firing football coaches, meaning that the hiring of football coaches will follow, sometimes fast enough for the incoming and outgoing coaches to pass each other in hallways of the athletic department. But I digress. . .

The first sign of the tsunami of coaching dollars came at Michigan State University where the current coach, Mel Tucker, was not fired but rather received a very nice ten-year contract extension of $95M. This contract was said to have been agreed upon a few days before The Michigan State University lost a football game to Ohio State by 49 points after trailing 49-0 at the half. Despite this slight stumble, The Michigan State University went ahead with the terms of the new contract. Penn State shortly thereafter gave its coach, James Franklin, a contract extension for $75M over ten years.

Ten years at $95M seems to have immediately become the benchmark price for elite football coaches. Just a few days ago, the football coach at the University of Notre Dame left the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus to head to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and LSU where he too will get $95M for ten years. There he will not be able to claim lack of success because of high academic standards. Those who remember Randy Newman’s “Red Necks” may recall the lyrics that paid tribute to the favorite university of Hughie Long.

Sandwiched between the $95M duo was Lincoln Riley. A day after denying to the press that he was leaving Oklahoma for LSU, Riley announced to the same press that he was going to Los Angeles to become head football coach and football messiah at the University of Southern California.

In 2019, Riley signed a $32.5M five-year contract at Oklahoma, At USC, rumors have his salary in excess of $100M over ten years with other perks. Whatever the precise details, it seems certain he will now be the highest paid college football coach on the planet, exceeding Nick Saban’s compensation at Alabama. Some are already speculating that this will lead to an increase in Saban’s pay. That only seems right and just.

Meanwhile, the University of Florida paid its coach, Dan Mullen, $12M to go away, as he failed to take them to the Promised Land. Presumably, new coach Billy Napier will get something near the $7.6M that was scheduled for Mullen.

Adding it up, four universities committed $307M to four head football coaches in a matter of two weeks with a near guarantee that at least one of them will be fired before their contracts end.

Baseball has also gone on a spending spree in the last week or so. The leader in the clubhouse is the New York Mets who signed Max Scherzer to a three year $130M contract. The Mets have also committed another $124.5M to three other free agents.

The Texas Rangers signed Marcus Semien to a seven-year $175M contract and Cory Seager $325M for ten years. It can be presumed that this is the highest paid double-play combination in baseball history. The Rangers also signed pitcher Jon Gray for $56M over four years.

The Minnesota Twins signed Bryan Buxton to a seven-year $100M extension. Buxton might be worth this “market value” if he were capable of playing at least 150 games a season during the course of his contract. Bet the under.

The Toronto Blue Jays will pay pitcher Jose Berrios $110M for five-years and Robbie Ray, Cy Young Award winner for the Jays, moves on to Seattle for a five-year $115M contract. The Jays also signed a five-year $110M contact with Kevin Gausman of the Giants.

Then, there are the Tampa Bay Rays with the smallest payroll in baseball. They, too, were on a spending spree signing their rookie sensation, Wander Franco, to an eleven-year $182M contract. They also signed pitcher Corey Kluber to a one-year deal worth a minimum of $8M and much more if incentives are met. Then, at the last minute, the Cubs signed free-agent pitcher Marcus Stroman to a three-year $71M deal, while Detroit signed Javier Baez to a six-year $140M contract.

This rash of signings came as baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expired and owners initiated a lockout which ends any more signings until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached. To beat the deadline, in the last few days baseball teams have committed $1,456,000,000 in player salaries, or $1.456 Billion.

As John Smoltz once said, “We are just tipping the iceberg.”

It truly ‘tis the Season to Follow the Money.

On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.



Copyright 2021 by Richard C. Crepeau




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