UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January > 26
Monday, January 26, 2009
Is UGA competitive with its checkbook?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I hope everybody got a chance to see the story I did on assistant football coaches’ salaries. If not it ran in the Sunday paper and here’s THE LINK.
This is one of those stories you really don’t take much joy in writing. I mean, really, can you get any more personal than what how much money someone makes? But with Tennessee and Auburn — and Alabama, as always — throwing around jack like they have been this winter, and all these institutions of higher learning being subjected to sunshine laws, it was simply my journalistic responsibility to take a look at what Georgia was doing and try to put it into perspective. And once you get into researching something like this, there are just layers and layers of qualifiers and stipulations, so many that you just can’t get it all in print.
For instance, Florida’s assistant coaches actually made only $31,000 more than Georgia’s assistants in 2008 and way less than Alabama’s in 2008 — and we all know how the Gators did in comparison. Then again, those UF assistants are enrolled in a generous pension plan in which they’re vested after only five years and that earns them a lot of hidden money. And, like anywhere, major bonuses kick in once any of these guys win the division, win the conference and/or win the BCS.
And for all the money Tennessee was throwing around this year, it was spending only slightly more than Georgia this past season. Even though the Vols are paying their new D-coordinator $1.2 million their total staff pay is up only $600,000 (it’s all relative, isn’t it?). By all accounts, Bama’s staff pay is approaching $7 million, if it’s not there already. Then again, Georgia’s assistants’ pay is close to Kentucky’s ($1.89 million) than it is Bama’s are LSU’s.
So clearly it’s an issue around the league, and the nation. And I understand both sides of it. For administrators it’s a quandary to try to maintain competitiveness and fiscal responsibility. For coaches, it’s simply a matter of being paid in line with your peers. Like all of us, they have to do what’s best for their families and careers.
Anyway, I received a lot of e-mails Sunday from readers commenting on the story. So I figured I’d just throw it out there in the blogosphere and see what you guys think about it all. Are coaches being paid too much? Not enough? As for the Bulldogs, are you happy with their place in all this? Do you think it’s important that they pay their coaches similarly to top teams in the league for the sake of perception and/or prestige?
One other note: The story was not as comprehensive as I wanted it to be. I filed Freedom of Information requests for 11 of the 12 SEC football programs (Vandy is a private school and not subjected to open-records laws) in the hopes of running all of them side-by-side at once. But I didn’t get them all back in time. So there will be some follow-up if and when I do.
Besides Georgia and Tennessee, here’s the others from the SEC East:
Florida (2008): Assts. —$2.035 million; Total $5.29 million;
South Carolina (2008): Assts. — $1.56 million; Total $3.31 million;
Kentucky (2009): Assts. — $1.89 million; Total $3.49 million
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