David_1
846
2016/03/28 10:52
#318489
Manne wrote:
Moments after UCLA won the Pacific-12 Conference men's basketball tournament in March, coach Steve Alford and his players climbed a ladder, cut down the nets and took a piece of the nylon string as part of their respective, and very different, rewards.
The players got hats and T-shirts. Alford got a hat and a T-shirt — and notched $40,000 in bonuses. It added to a lucrative year for the new coach — $2.6 million in annual compensation from UCLA, along with an $845,000 signing bonus last spring to cover his buyout and taxes when he left the University of New Mexico.
Alford's players, by contrast, attend UCLA on scholarships that pay tuition, room and board but fail to cover more than $4,000 a year in living and other expenses, according to the school's most recent financial report to the NCAA.
The financial divide between Alford and his players reflects a national trend: College scholarship athletes face thousands in out-of-pocket costs while coaches' salaries — and revenue from college sports — continue to rise dramatically, a USA TODAY Sports analysis shows. The players in this year's Final Four attend schools where the gap between their scholarships and the total cost of attendance is about $2,300 to $5,400 a year, according to the schools' financial reports. Yet the coaches — Kentucky's John Calipari, Florida's Billy Donovan, Wisconsin's Bo Ryan and Connecticut's Kevin Ollie — are collecting an average of $3.1 million from their schools for this season.
The same four coaches also have racked up a combined $850,000 in bonuses this year, enough money to cover a $4,000 cost-of-attendance gap for 212 scholarship athletes.
Meanwhile, college athletes, who compete as amateurs and cannot be paid under NCAA rules, helped Division I schools generate nearly $11 billion in revenue in 2012-13, research by USA TODAY Sports shows, with more than $4.8 billion going to the 55 wholly public schools among the six power conferences (Big Ten, Pac-12, Southeastern, Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Big East, as constituted at the time). Those schools comprised 16% of the Division I membership but claimed 45% of the revenue, the analysis shows.
But the current construction of college sports — where amateurism and commercialism meet — is headed for an overhaul. How to close the "cost-of-attendance" gap is one of a host of issues advocates for student-athletes — and some federal lawmakers — say should be addressed to bring economic fairness to the system.
"I think it is out of balance right now," said U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., who last year introduced a bill that would require colleges with high-revenue sports to provide a package of benefits to student-athletes. "In state after state in this country you see the highest-paid state employee is actually a coach. So the bottom line is that always brings in the question: Can these schools do more? I believe that they can. Should the schools do more? I believe that they should."
This week, the NCAA will bask in glow of the Final Four, the association's annual showcase. In two months, it is scheduled to be in federal court fighting litigation that seeks to strike down its ban against athletes sharing in the wealth — a case brought by another UCLA figure, Ed O'Bannon, star of the Bruins' last national championship basketball team in 1995.
The case, along with other litigation and potential legislation, poses the strongest challenge yet to the NCAA's decades-long financial hold over athletes. The plaintiffs' argument centers on the assertion that the only remnants of amateurism in college sports are the economic limitations on student-athletes. But for schools and coaches, it's a highly lucrative business, with 21 coaches in this year's 68-team NCAA field making at least $2 million this season and the average pay at nearly $1.8 million for the 58 coaches for whom USA TODAY Sports could obtain compensation figures.
Alford's move to UCLA from New Mexico last year netted him the largest pay increase — more than $1.4 million — of any public university basketball coach who appeared in the tournament both years. Yet it leaves him well short of the richest coaches. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski pulled in nearly $10 million in compensation in 2011, according to the university's most recently available tax return, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in all of sports. Louisville coach Rick Pitino is making nearly $5.8 million this season, as much as some of the top-paid NBA coaches earn.
Robert Carey, an attorney with Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro who is involved in several lawsuits against the NCAA, says Alford's deal is another example of "the problem in collegiate sport."
"On the one hand you've got a coach out there in a hyper-competitive market being paid enormous sums because what he's bringing to the enterprise is valuable, but the more valuable component, the student-athletes — the ones who in any other context of sports are paid the most — can't even get enough to get their school completed. And that's just not right," Carey says.
EDUCATION OR BUSINESS?
Sitting in front of his locker during the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas, UCLA forward Tony Parker considered the current limits on student-athletes.
"It'd be cool for them to give a little back to the players," he said. "But whatever the NCAA does, you have to support them because those are our bosses."
UCLA athletics director Dan Guerrero declined an interview request, as did school Chancellor Gene Block.
The NCAA has in general withstood court challenges to its power because the association has successfully argued that athletics is subservient to its primary mission of education. Regulations concerning athletes' eligibility, therefore, are part of the NCAA's mandate to protect the academic integrity — and non-profit, tax-exempt status — of its members.
If sports is the NCAA's secondary mission, it is a booming sideline, sparking billions in spending not only
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His bio on the Manhattan website says Masiello earned a communications degree from Kentucky. His agent declined comment to ESPN.
Rick Pitino, who coached Masiello in Kentucky and then faced him in the tournament, said he was surprised by ESPN's report.
"If it's accurate, I'm shocked by it," Pitino said. "I had no idea. I left the previous year and he was on track to graduate."
This not only takes him out of running for the South Florida job, but also calls into question his future with Manhattan. The Jaspers went to the NCAA tournament this year after winning the MAAC, where they lost to Louisville in the first round.
The University of South Florida released the following statement Wednesday on the search for a men's basketball coach:
During the search for a new men's basketball coach, an agreement in principle was reached by USF and candidate Steve Masiello. The agreement was pending a verification of credentials. Through the verification process it was determined the candidate's credentials could not be substantiated and therefore he did not meet the requirements for the position. The national search continues and USF looks forward to introducing a new coach at the appropriate time.
Report: USF basketball coach candidate Steve Masiello falsifies resume