Calipari's $35 Million Contract Will Drive Up Salaries

The $35 million contract Kentucky gave John Calipari will send ripples across the college basketball world, especially its coaching fraternity.

$35 million over eight years, approximately $4.5 million/year, may or may not make good business sense.  Only time will tell.

I can see the benefits of wrapping up a coach like Calipari for the long run, especially in a market where salaries go up every year.  $4.5 million may look like a lot today. In 2014 it may look like a bargain.

There's very little doubt that Kentucky has taken a giant step toward recovering past glories, and will soon make it back to the final four, possibly as soon as next year.

The contract that Calipari and Kentucky agreed to last week makes him the highest paid coach in the country.  This is going to give a lot of other coaches some real bargaining power.

Calipari is an awesome college basketball coach.  He's proved his value all along his coaching progression—from Fordom to UMass to Memphis.

Memphis was the second school he's taken to a final four and he's shown that he can recruit with the best of coaches.

As good as he is—and he is going to bring Kentucky back—does he deserve to be the highest paid college coach on the planet?

How can UNC explain to Roy Williams—especially if he wins another National Championship Monday night— that he doesn't deserve more dough than Calipari?

They can't.

How can Duke explain that to Coach K.  How can Michigan State explain that to Tom Izzo?  You get the picture.

How can a whole bunch of schools tell their coaches they are only worth half, or a quarter of what John Calipari makes?  They can't either.

So fans across the country—get ready to pay more for your tickets.  Ultimately you will be paying the salary increases for a lot of coaches.

The increases will affect football too.  When certain schools increase the salary of their basketball coach, they are going to have trouble telling the football coach that he won't be the highest paid coach on campus.

Can you imagine if USC had to tell Pete Carroll that he won't be the big kahuna anymore because they raised Tim Floyd's salary when Arizona made a big run for him?

Los Angeles, we have a problem.

A lot of you will probably say "it doesn't matter how much a coach makes—all the money comes from private donors."

Yes, the money will come from private donations, but consequently that much less private money will go directly to the basketball or football program.

In Kentucky's case, they have the right to do anything they please and if they want to pay their coach $10 million/year—they can do it.

Personally, I never like it when one school believes they are entitled to entice another school's coach with the almighty dollar.  That's what's happened here.

The Alumni, with a collectively large ego—the kind that could only remind one of George Steinbrenner—had to get their man.

Steinbrenner only wanted to win, but in doing so he drove baseball salaries through the roof, and have you seen the cost of a ticket to a Yankee game lately?

Kentucky has just become the George Steinbrenner of the college basketball world.  They are going to drive up ticket prices in just about every arena in the country.

The Wildcats are not the only offender.  Alabama did it when they offered Nick Saban all that money to leave the Miami Dolphins. 

At this very moment, Arizona's athletic director Jim Livengood, because USC's Tim Floyd refused their offer, is trying to tempt Sean Miller of Xavier with a huge contract, and guess what? Xavier just said they're going to sweeten the pot. 

Schools don't even have to make an offer.  Just the thought that they might, can trigger a school into taking action to retain a coach.

In 2006, when Steve Spurrier's name was mentioned as a possible replacement at Miami and Alabama, didn't South Carolina say to Spurrier "here's an extra $500,000/yr—you're doing great?"

I didn't like it when the University of Miami sent their athletic director up to New Jersey to flash some money at Rutgers' Greg Schiano, when they needed a replacement for Larry Coker.  Luckily for Rutgers, Schiano said no.

That's what Kentucky did.  They got their man and you, me, and all your friends will eventually pay for it.