Stan Geiger

Athletics Out of Control

Danny Rennels, a former executive secretary of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association---an organization that oversees school athletics---has been indicted for allegedly embezzling $457,000 since September 2005.

Before the season began, Jenks High School was busted for having a star player on the team that didn’t seem to actually live in the district. I have suspected both Jenks and Union of recruiting for some time. The Jenks incident, in my mind, serves as confirmation.

A brawl broke out at a high school football game between Booker T. Washington and East Central. Tulsa Public Schools administration has knee-jerked. There are all sorts of new rules for attending a high school football game. And, oh, by the way, the district plans to exploit the acts of a few miscreants to justify a 20 percent increase in the price of a ticket.

I caught a news blurb the other night that said Oklahoma State University’s head basketball coach, Travis Ford, has been granted a $400,000 pay raise. I guess the Poke hoopsters won a national championship I didn’t hear about.

As I recall, Ford’s starting salary was $1.2 million per year. After a year on the job, he got a 33 percent pay bump. He’s now being paid---in base pay alone---roughly 46 times the state’s average wage.

The mighty Boomer football team had a whole off season to get ready for BYU. Come game day, they stunk up the joint and lost. Yeah, Bradford left the game. But the backup played well enough to win. He got no help. The Boomers weren’t ready to play.

Bob Stoops has a base salary of nearly $3 million per year. Coordinators are paid enough to be in the top 1 percent of wage earners in the nation.

Gundy’s Pokes played a marvelous game in week one. In week two, they stunk up the joint and lost. The offense didn’t show up until the second half. The defense that put a glove on one of the best teams in the country in the opener didn’t bother to show up at all; it got ripped for over 500 yards. The Pokes weren’t ready to play.

It’s bad enough that coaches are vastly overpaid. It gets worse when these vastly-overpaid people don’t perform.

Being a fan is one thing. But even the most ardent fan must acknowledge there is something seriously wrong with athletics in the modern day.

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