Stan Geiger

No Contracts for Coaches

In a fairly recent edition of SNL, one of the players posed as an entertainment industry executive complaining about the then-impending writers' strike. In an attempt to garner sympathy for himself, the character put this question: "Do you know how much an average CEO makes?"

He answered his own question. "Twenty million a year."

Then he added, "More if you get fired."

Much truth can be found in humor.

Why is it failed and fired CEOs walk away with truckloads of money? Contracts, that's why.

If you have a job in Oklahoma, you are most likely an "at will employee" in the eyes of the law. You might be the best employee in the history of the world, but your boss can fire you tomorrow. You can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason or no reason at all. And once fired, your former employer owes you squat. So says the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

But then there are the "special" people---like university coaches. They get contracts.

OSU basketball coach Sean Sutton has been sent packing. But reports from back in the day say Sutton was given a 5-year contract that paid him $750,000 a year when his daddy handed him the job. My calculations say there are 3 years left to run on that contract. Meaning, OSU still owes Sutton $2.25 million.

I figure some kind of settlement is worked out in these situations, but Sutton, clearly, won't leave OSU empty handed.

Up the road in Norman, OU basketball coach Jeff Capel has reportedly been given a contract that runs through the year 2014 and pays him a guaranteed $1.05 million a year. OU, then, already owes this guy at least $6.3 million---even if he stinks up the joint and gets himself fired in a year or two.

The pay coaches draw these days is ridiculous on its face. Extended contracts for coaches make things even worse.

What private schools choose to do private schools choose to do. I reckon I don't have a dog in that fight. But colleges and universities that take tax money are a different matter. And since the appointed governors of said institutions seem completely unwilling to act on behalf of taxpayers, the elected legislators should step up.

It's time statutory limits on how much taxpayer money coaches at taxpayer-subsidized colleges and universities can pocket are put in place. And it's time contracts for coaches at taxpayer-subsidized colleges and universities are banned by law.

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