Michigan State Pays Nearly $6 Million a Year for a 5-7 Coach? Nothing Left For the Players?
By Ken Reed
On the same day that NCAA president Mark Emmert was testifying in front of Congress about how terrible it would be if college athletes were allowed to earn money from their name, image and likeness (NIL) — like any other college student, or U.S. citizen for that matter — Michigan State was reportedly giving Colorado football coach Mel Tucker a contract worth nearly $6 million a year.
Tucker is far from one of the most successful college football coaches in the country. A long-time assistant coach, he finished his first and only season as a head college football coach at Colorado with a 5-7 record. The year before, his predecessor, Mike MacIntyre, had a 5-6 record.
Schools like Michigan State are throwing $6 million a year at coaches like Tucker (and millions more for assistant coaches) while the NCAA lobbies Congress for the ability to continue denying college athletes their economic and civil rights.
I asked civil rights historian Taylor Branch about this.
“College athletes are both athletes and students,” said Branch.
“It’s definitely a civil rights issue. The governance of college sports is a civil rights issue because the athletes are citizens and are being denied their rights by what amounts to collusion. Colleges are telling football and basketball players they can’t get anything above a college scholarship. The athletes are being conned out of their rights.”
Schools in Power Five conferences now average more than $110 million in annual revenue.
So, tell me again why big-time college athletic programs can’t treat athletes more fairly from an economic perspective?
“The current system basically screws a bunch of kids, a lot of them disadvantaged kids,” says New York Times columnist Joe Nocera.
This doesn’t even have to be about putting college athletes on the school’s payroll. That’s a messy thing, given Title IX and other factors. Simply allow college athletes to benefit from their NILs.
Emmert went to Congress and told them that allowing athletes to benefit from their NILs is a threat to the survival of college athletics. That’s shameful. It didn’t kill the Olympic and it won’t kill college athletics.
Let athletes benefit from their fame and likeness like their fellow students. Let them take endorsement money like the coaches that lead them. If the local auto parts store wants to pay a college athlete to sign autographs for two hours during a store sale, why shouldn’t the athlete be allowed to take that opportunity? Music students on scholarship are free to accept cash or gifts for playing a weekend gig at the local club. Why should athletes be treated differently?
The answer is simple: They shouldn’t be.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada. We discuss problems in youth sports today, including single sport specialization, the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” the high drop-out rate in competitive sports, and the growing mental health challenges young athletes are dealing with today.
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Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Episode #23 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Olympian Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Talks Title IX, Youth Sports and the Olympics.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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