Answer: Yes.

The News & Observer's klieg-light coverage of the revolving-door coaching changes at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State -- with up-escalator salaries -- has caused some readers to question the paper's decision-making. That often happens when big sports stories stray out of the Sports section and onto the front page.

The concerns are of two types: Why does The N&O turn over valuable front-page real estate to stories that have more to do with entertainment than news? And does the paper, by giving so much attention to sports, contribute to the commercialization that it decries on its own editorial page?

In a letter to the editor, a UNC spokesman protested a recent editorial criticizing the nearly $2 million salary for newly hired football coach Butch Davis. Steve Kirschner said N&O sports reporters regularly write about the economic impact of a losing football season, run a coaches' "hot-seat meter" and write columns that "fan the flames of discontent by writing which coaches should be on the way out..." He noted that the paper promoted a book on UNC's 2005 national champion basketball team within 24 hours after the game was over.

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

Touche. Kirschner has a valid point that there's a disconnect between the paper's words on the editorial page and its practices in sports coverage. Two observations here: First, readers should not expect the editorial policy and news coverage to be in sync. Editorial and news operate separately, to keep the paper's opinions out of news coverage.

Second, there are sound reasons for the acres of sports space in a newspaper. For one, it's what the readers want. "There are many people whose earliest memories are of being dressed in blue or red or purple and going to a stadium on a fall day. It's encoded in their DNA," said Dan Barkin, deputy managing editor, who oversees the sports coverage. "I think there are many more people who are passionate about the future of the football team than there are about what happens in the General Assembly." The N&O covers lawmaking too, he added, because it's important.

And yes, Mr. Kirschner, The N&O profits from the coverage. When N.C. State or Carolina wins a football game, The N&O will sell 1,000 or so extra papers. (Unfortunately, for the schools and the newspaper, that didn't happen much this year.)

Too, sports is news. The universities are investing huge amounts in the facilities, coaches and staff on campus, and they're seeking that money from the public, either in terms of donor contributions or tax dollars. "This is not simply about sports," Barkin said. "It's about major institutions going to citizens of North Carolina saying, 'give us your money.' We have a responsibility to cover that."

North Carolina's most outspoken critic of big-time college sports is William Friday, former president of the University of North Carolina system. After Davis' hiring at UNC, Friday issued a statement criticizing the deal and questioning the university's willingness to win at any cost.

But he told me that he doesn't find newspapers to be part of the problem nor fault them for the space devoted to college athletics. "The coverage of it is what your readers expect," he said. "I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem is the insatiable appetite of the public."

Friday said newspapers should go beyond the game coverage to examine the issues behind the escalating "arms race" in sports spending. How much debt is incurred for athletic palaces such as UNC's planned $75 million expansion of Kenan Stadium? What's the cost to taxpayers of subsidizing scholarships to athletes by giving them in-state tuition status? What's the cost of tutoring programs for athletes? "Let's do a little bit more definitive reporting on what's going on behind the picture," he said.

The N&O did just that kind of reporting Friday with an article by reporter Robbi Pickeral examining whether private donations for Davis' salary will give boosters more influence over athletics decision-making. That story ran on the Sports front, appropriately, I thought.

I looked back over the papers for November, and there were six days when sports stories were on page one. Most were legit front-page stories -- the fact that the majority of ACC basketball coaches now are African-American, the surprising success of the N.C. Central football team, Carolina's suddenly escalated football coach salary.

The coaching shuffles at UNC and State also merited the front, given the reader interest, but not necessarily the World War III treatment they got in terms of headline size, picture and display.

And I agree with the readers who questioned the editors' front-page signal-calling Thursday. N.C. State's reported hiring of the Boston College coach made page one, while the Iraq Study Group report got only a summary that sent readers to page 3A for the story. (The Boston Globe, I noted, did the reverse -- Iraq on page one, with a teaser inside to the Boston College coach leaving.)

"Certainly I could turn to page 3," wrote Tarboro reader Bill Smythe, "but I don't understand why a newspaper of The N&O's stature wouldn't make it top front-page news."

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.