Top NCAA coaches have financial security

Thanks to the extra $600 combined with unemployment benefits each week, some people who have been furloughed or terminated, many are making more than the did while working.

The money is critical to America and Americans.

Hopefully most will have jobs to go back to, but it made me curious.

Most of those hit financially by COVID-19 will bring in around or close to $1,000 per week total.

Meanwhile, John Calipari, the highest paid college basketball coach, will continue to make $156,884.61 per week.

There’s no doubt coaches put in a lot of hours. Basketball isn’t just about throwing a round ball through a round hole — although that is still how the winner is determined — and recruiting has made it and college football a year-round sport.

So if Coach Cal works 60 hours a week, he is still making $2,614.74 per hour.

That’s an hour, as in 60 minutes.

As in half a bad movie you watched the last three weeks while in personal quarantine.

By this time, it feels like the only thing missing from this experience is an electronic ankle bracelet.

Not picking on Calipari,

but he is the highest paid college coach, according to USA Today.

Last season he made $326,320 for each of Kentucky’s 25 wins. He wasn’t penalized a penny for the six losses.

His total salary is $8,158,000.

His per-win salary is nothing compared to Clemson’s Dabo Swinney or Alabama’s Nick Saban.

Also according to USA

Today, Swinney makes $9,255,000 and Saban $8,707,000. Saban seems to have some perks that are not taxable, such as Alabama paying off his home and letting him live there free.

Granted all of this is based on before taxes, but so is the $1,000 per week of unemployment benefits.

If Swinney plays 14 games, the maximum, he makes is $661,071.32 per game. Saban would come in at $621,928.51.

They have bonuses for winning the national championship, but there’s no penalty for losing it.

While the argument of whether or not there will be college football this fall is growing by the day. At some point, administrators and athletic directors are going to have to consider how much they pay coaches who are basically unemployed if the season isn’t paid.

A guess is it would be considerably more than your average unemployed person.

Just for comparison, Sam Pittman and his entire coaching staff make less than Swinney, Saban and about 10 other head coaches.

Pittman makes $3 million which would rank him about No. 49 of all 130 FBS coaches and his assistants a total of about $2.5 million.

No one has more hard work ahead of them than Pittman and his staff..

Eric Mussselman’s $2.5 million salary ranks him at 45th among all college coaches, and like Pittman, has a lot of work to do.

Musselman did get a jump on Pittman by having a year at Arkansas under his belt, and he is cherry picking players who fit his system from the transfer portal.

Some coronavirus experts are predicting football will be moved back, and does that mean football and basketball will be played at the same time?

That would be unfair to the fans.

Many would have to choose which sport to support.

Administrators and athletic directors are not the only ones with some tough decisions regarding athletics.

Not all of those who are getting around $1,000 a week are making more than when they were working.

Many may have larger families, bigger houses and more debts.

Buying food or paying utility bills will take a priority over helping a coach like Swinney or Saban make more than $2,000 an hour.

WALLY HALL