David N. Camaione: Colleges spend too much on coaches

I read with interest the April 22 Sports article “Keatts’ contract details released.” When will these inflated and ridiculous salaries stop? And when will the Boards of Trustees take seriously that these huge coaching salaries are an insult to the school’s academic integrity? What does it say that the college president and other high-ranking officials make considerably less?

There is little or no objective evidence that these large “investments” actually generate significant financial benefits; data are mostly subjective. If the institution was to spread a large amount of these dollars across the academic spectrum, the benefits would be readily apparent.

For example, if schools provided 50 percent of these absurd salaries to a clinical researcher, who just might find a cure for a dreaded disease, few would question that investment. These inflated coaching salaries are contrary to the institution’s academic mission.

If we look at Keatts’ incentives, he could be paid an additional $100,000 for making an NCAA tournament appearance or $300,000 for an ACC title or additional bonuses for winning important games. Isn’t this why he is getting such a high base salary in the first place, to achieve an excellent win/loss record or win championships?

I do not fault Coach Keatts for accepting these dollars but do subscribe to the fact that such incentives as the Federal Graduation Rate, Graduate Success Rate and Academic Progress Rate are in fact the relevant items of his contract.

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 6:28 PM with the headline "David N. Camaione: Colleges spend too much on coaches."