Paper both criticizes and profits from sports

An N&O editorial predictably found fault with UNC-Chapel Hill's compensation package for incoming football coach Butch Davis (Nov. 29, "The message in money"). I say predictably because in matters related to college athletics, especially where economics come into play, the editorial board is consistently in opposition.

Nationally, UNC is held in the highest regard by the media and peer institutions for the manner in which it balances academic and athletic priorities. Carolina is held as a model program for maintaining an outstanding athletics program that doesn't drain resources from academics.

It is ironic your editorials so consistently decry what you call "big-time" athletics. This from a paper whose Sports section repeatedly prints articles detailing the economic impact of a losing football season; prints a coaches' "hot seat meter" it updates after each win or loss; includes a weekly comedy section in which a writer pokes fun at coaches and players; and whose columnists often fan the flames of discontent by writing which coaches should be on the way out should they lose a particular game. And let's not forget the animated Web site cartoons that provide no news value, but exist for entertainment purposes.

Your editorials warn how money matters are corrupting college athletics. Yet the paper rarely runs stories about community service projects, covers certain sports or writes about academic successes. The N&O sure didn't hesitate to print and sell a book after the Tar Heels won the 2005 NCAA men's basketball championship, a book the paper promoted less than 24 hours after the nets were cut down in St. Louis so as to better capitalize on its marketing efforts.

So The N&O can make money off Carolina athletics, but the university can't fairly compensate its coaches based on market forces?

It's not about whether a coach should make more than an English professor, a police officer or a chancellor. This is the United States and people are paid for the jobs they do in relation to the profession in which they have chosen to work.

Just as with Roy Williams, Butch Davis is an investment in excellence. The university's constituents demand and have come to expect that its athletics program mirror its wishes for every aspect of university life -- that we are about excellence. Given the fact we pursue that level of excellence with integrity, there is nothing wrong with that.

Steve Kirschner

Director of Athletic Communications

UNC-Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill

(The length limit on letters was waived to permit a fuller response.)