Big 12 Daily Fever: Texas Hears In-house Criticism of Brown's Salary

Texas coach Mack Brown has the Longhorns playing for their second National Title in four years, and he has led the program to four BCS Bowls in a six year span. Those accomplishments, combined with the UT tradition and massive fan base, mean that the Texas football team brings in as much revenue to their school as any team in the nation. Consequently, Brown is paid quite heavily in general and recently saw his compensation package raised to over $5 million a year.

It's that last fact that has some on the Texas faculty saying that their football coach should not have received a raise and that his salary is "unseemly and inappropriate”. While we all are sensitive to tightening budgets these days, the UT professors need an economic lesson.

First of all, the money for Brown's substantial contract is not being paid by the school. Instead, it’s comes athtletic department revenues and alumni boosters. In addition, the above story states that Texas athletic department “has had no subsidies or deficits and has channeled $6.6 million into academic programs in recent years”.

This outcry is simply the jealously and/or misunderstanding by some faculty about big-time college athletics. The reality is that student admissions increase with success in football or basketball, and donations from alums go up as well. Even in a tough overall economy, top level programs like Texas are continuing to bring in the revenue.

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