College athletics hold UT hostage
Like many, I was shocked — but upon reflection, not surprised — to learn this weekend the University of Texas at Austin terminated football coach Tom Herman and immediately hired Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian to replace him.
This will cost UT about $25 million, paid to Herman and his departing assistants. The total bill might be closer to $40 million if you factor the price tag for Sarkisian’s salary and any buyout, and additional costs if he cleans house and recruits his own staff, as is typically the case.
Let’s put this in perspective: In 2019, UT’S football program generated around $157 million in revenue, an increase from $144 million the previous year. The cost of firing Herman and hiring Sarkesian is not even tip money; the football program will not miss it. That is stunning.
Make no mistake: I am a fan of college sports, watching and rooting for Texas Longhorns teams. Perhaps I am a hypocrite, but I find this recent move reprehensible and unacceptable — both tangibly and symbolically. I say this having been a UT faculty member for 41 years, an administrator for eight years, and a member of the Intercollegiate Athletics Council for Men for four years.
Once again the message communicated by UT is clear: College athletics, not academics, are the priority. Just imagine if that $40 million were available to pay
faculty and staff. Imagine if UT told alumni donors — those who fill the athletics department’s coffers and make possible the hiring and buyout of coaches — that a percentage of their gifts would be allocated to the academic side of the shop, more than the relatively small amount now transferred to academics. Of course, none of this is likely to happen. To be fair, UT athletics raises enough money it doesn’t have to be propped up by the university.
As a faculty colleague observed, UT’S termination of Herman and hiring of a new coach would be problematic in any year. However, the decision is even more disturbing this year. The coronavirus pandemic has strained UT’S budget. Salaries are frozen; staff are being let go; open faculty and staff positions are going unfilled; and more academic budget cuts might be on the horizon. At the worst moment of suffering, UT’S highest priority is a new football coach.
A former doctoral student of mine put the state of affairs in even starker terms: “College athletics is by and large a cesspool that turns administrators and coaches into millionaires by exploiting the labor and health of young Black men. The education they were promised in exchange proves very hard to get with 6 a.m. lifting sessions and majors restricted by afternoon practice times. Fans don’t seem to care that their heroes are disposable (and readily disposed of ). As Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Taylor Branch observes: ‘It has a whiff of the plantation.’ ”
In addition, many individuals who donate to academic departments, colleges and educational programs are so upset they may stop giving. One told me: “As much as I value the excellent education I received at UT, I’m done giving them money. If they can fritter away $25 million on bad decision-making, they don’t need my modest donations.”
Unfortunately, there are no signs things will change. Coaches will come and go, and universities will continue to dole out incredible sums of money to hire them and buy them out.
Sadly, like many, I may continue to be a hypocrite, criticizing the enormous disparity between athletics and academic budgets while cheering for UT teams. And that is precisely the problem. Hence, it is not an overstatement to say that college athletics hold universities hostage.