If Tucker's as good as the Spartans believe him to be,
championships should soon follow
By
Nov 26, 2021 at 11:14 pm ET
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Mel Tucker is overpaid. The man himself has to admit that.
Before completing his third season as a head coach -- his second at Michigan
State -- Tucker is now the game's second-highest paid coach.
Nick Saban is No. 1, and there are those who will suggest the
only similarities between the two are their contracts and the fact that Tucker
once worked for the great Alabama coach. Now, they can buy their own Mercedes
dealerships. Wait, Saban already co-owns six of them, the same number of
championships he has won at Alabama.
That's one indicator Tucker has some catching up to do, you
know, on the field where these big contracts are supposedly earned. In case you
haven't noticed in the coaching profession, salary frequently outstrips
accomplishment.
The reaction to Tucker's contract in the college athletics'
community is somewhere between floored and stunned. Tucker will collect $95
million from Michigan State over the next 10 years.
Good for him, but at least Bobby Bowden had won a national
championship when he became the first $1 million dollar coach in 1995. So had
Steve Spurrier when he became the first $2 million coach a year later.
Tucker is 16-14 as a head coach in his career. Just 21 months
ago, he was leaving Colorado after one season in which he went 5-7. His biggest
accomplishment in Spartyland is being the first Michigan State coach to go 2-0
against Michigan right out of the box while having his program competing for a
Big Ten title and College Football Playoff berth into
November.
He signed his extension Wednesday on the back of losing two of
his last three games, at Purdue by 11 (MSU entered as a favorite) and at Ohio
State by ... 49.
For a while, Tucker's running back, Kenneth Walker III, was the
Heisman Trophy favorite. Walker should win the Doak Walker Award (best running
back).
His coach can probably afford a really fancy note card
congratulating him.
We can make jokes about the outlandish salaries of coaches, but
this one is outlandish-ish.
With the contract, the boosters who funded it are telling the world this
endeavor is beyond winning championships. This is about becoming Michigan. No,
Ohio State. No, this is about becoming Alabama.
For Michigan State, such is the price of (attempting) greatness.
Tucker is qualified. The man has a lengthy resume including NFL experience,
Big Ten chops and serving as a defensive coordinator under both Saban and Kirby
Smart.
The Michigan State turnaround this season has been remarkable.
But is he a $95 million coach? We'll find out.
This extension whirlwind is also our American marketplace at
work. The demand for good coaches is outstripping supply. Thus, you see
inflation. There have been five coaches handed 10-year deals this year, three
in the last three weeks -- Tucker, UTSA's Jeff Traylor and Penn State's James
Franklin.
"Scarcity of elite coaches for those in the upper
echelon," one Power Five athletic director explained as the reason for
these deals. "Therefore, if you have a guy you believe in, lock him up.
Otherwise, doing a search in this market is a lose-lose situation."
In other words, all the coaching studs are taken to the point
the likes of Dave Aranda (less than two years' head coaching experience) is a
hot name at both LSU and USC. Nothing against Aranda, who looks like the next
coaching superstar, but not so quietly what used to be a two-year extension has
become a 10-year extension.
"Schools are willing to do longer-term contracts if they
feel they have the right head coach in place," Liberty AD Ian McCaw said.
"Traditionally, they have been four- and five-year contracts. Now, you're
seeing seven-, eight-, even 10-year contracts."
McCaw this week extended Hugh Freeze two years to 2028 but at an
average of more than $4 million per year. That would be at or near the highest
annual salary for a non-Power Five coach.
Is that fiscally responsible, or is it none of our business?
Saban is one of the few coaches in the country who actually
earns his monster dollars. His success has contributed to enrollment increases,
campus facility upgrades and an improved academic profile for Alabama.
Iowa's Kirk Ferentz got a $500,000 bonus for winning his eighth game. There
are those who have pointed out Franklin has gone 11-9 in last two years and has
one Big Ten title in eight seasons. Now he's earning $7.5 million per year with
an additional $1 million in a life insurance loan.
Those observations are fair. It's also fair to say the Land
Grant Trophy that goes to the winner of Saturday's Michigan State vs. Penn
State game, should be sponsored by Rocket Mortgage. Both athletic departments
could be banking their futures on combined 20-year contracts worth $170
million.
We should pause here and salute the fact Tucker became the
highest-paid Black coach, ever, in American sports. He passes Stanford coach
David Shaw.
In the negotiating
trenches, super agent Neil Cornrich worked his magic. He clearly knew the
market. There wasn't even an opening at Michigan State, and he blew the lid
off. Tucker's name had come up at LSU. He would have interviewed at
some point, sources tell CBS Sports. Maybe that's all Cornrich needed as
leverage: the idea of an interview.
A lot of coaches are overpaid, almost every single head coach at
the Power Five level. When you make (much) more than the president of the
school, that raises questions about an institution's priorities. But we passed
that mile marker about 50 years ago. No one blinked then. Why start now?
Maybe it's because Tucker is more overpaid than most.
Again, he would probably admit that, but as Bill Parcells once
said, you're worth what someone will pay you.
Tucker is worth a lot. Only the number of zeroes quantify
whatever outrage exists. Critics were jumping down Knute Rockne's throat when
he made $75,000 at the time of his death in 1931. In today's money, that would
equal $1.2 million.
Tucker is making eight times that. How times have changed -- or
stayed the same.
Legend has it that Bear Bryant left Kentucky for Alabama because
he got a cigarette lighter one year while Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp
got a Cadillac for his accomplishments.
What a club Tucker has joined. Now comes the hard part: winning.
Those monied boosters who are funding this contract will expect
championships. They won't be alone. Michigan State can no longer hide as Little
Brother in quaint East Lansing, Michigan. That kind of money trumpets swagger
and excellence.
First, you've got to win championships -- beating Michigan not
only next year but every year. That's a good start. Becoming Alabama is the
ultimate expectation.
For now, Walker can look forward to that really impressive note
card.