January 30, 2011 · 9:35 AM

Maybe it’s because Tech looked three times better going 6-7.

For some reason, Paul Johnson got a bonus three times the size of Mark Richt’s for losing a shitty bowl game.

33 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football, Georgia Tech Football

33 responses to “Maybe it’s because Tech looked three times better going 6-7.”

  1. gastr1
    January 30, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    The fact that Mark Richt received a bonus at all is an absolute face-busting sham that I think we should all be upchucking our morning bacon over.

    Let me say a few things about this, and yes, it’s about to get personal:
    I am a UGA grad and now a tenured prof at a third-tier state u. far from Georgia. I fully realize that sports are funded by private foundations and were willfully disconnected from the rest of university funding a long time ago. Nonetheless, both Mark Richt and I are employees of a state institution of higher learning.

    In my state, I have not had a raise for three years, and even when I did get raises in the five years I have earned them, in three of the five raises were of the 1% or less (!). In that time I have been recognized with university awards for outstanding performance in each of the key areas at my school: teaching, research, and service. Despite this freeze on my salary and my personal continued stellar performance, including this t=year when I won the most prestigious university award a prof in my area can get, I knew that I would receive no bonus or raise…and then my state’s lawmakers recently proposed to balance the state budget by cutting all state employee salaries by 7.5% starting immediately until the end of the academic year (June 30). It’s a temporary cut, but it’s a significant one: I personally would be giving back entire salary increases from some years when I did get a raise (though not all of them, because I did get a healthy bump when I earned tenure).

    I don’t begrudge the fact that many of my colleagues at my own school make much more than I do; faculty salaries are field, market, and achievement-specific. Faculty in law make more than those in philosophy because of the level of market demand to find faculty in those fields. Sometimes faculty in one area are making two or three times as much as others. I don’t even begrudge the money football and basketball coaches get paid; it’s not money from the rest of the university pool (so faculty/staff salaries and departments are not affected by the salaries of coaches). And I recognize that coaches like CMR are at the top of their field and face much more job performance pressure and public scrutiny than I ever will, and that they can be let go at any time without warning. I get all of that and understand fully that they should be paid much more than I just on the basis of comparative career achievement and the nature of their positions versus mine.

    But the principle of giving bonuses that big, which for me would be 50% of my salary in a given year, in a year of perceived mediocre performance…I don’t know. Even if there are other metrics involved, as there should be, such as graduation rate (good), player behavior (bad), recruiting (looking good), community outreach (good I guess), continued good representation of the university (good)…despite these, this bonus chaps the sh*t out of me.

    Admittedly, I probably wouldn’t feel that way if I wasn’t facing a frigging gigantic salary cut in a year of better performance (or so I think) than Mark Richt’s. Oh well…thanks for letting me rant. I know I should just be happy to have a job in these times. And a job I like at that. Still…give that money away, Mark Richt. Please.

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    • gastr1
      January 30, 2011 at 10:51 AM

      I edit a lot better on papers than I do on blogs, for some reason. Apologies for that; I promise that good college students are not suffering from being taught by someone who cannot write. 🙂

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    • baltimore dawg
      January 30, 2011 at 12:31 PM

      so sounds like you’re in kansas. wichita state (you said third tier)? sorry for your troubles.

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      • gastr1
        January 30, 2011 at 12:43 PM

        Thanks, baltimore dawg. Pretty close.

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        • gastr1
          January 30, 2011 at 12:46 PM

          But I guess I should clarify that I am not sorry for myself or angry about my own situation–which is much better than many, many others.’ I am irritated that Richt and Johnson get paid even when they stink up the joint.

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          • baltimore dawg
            January 30, 2011 at 1:28 PM

            i get what you mean. i’m in higher ed, too. i have worked at institutions where the disparities between the system of incentives and rewards for faculty and for coaches were absurd in the extreme, if you’re not too cynical to take the stated missions of these institutions at face value.

            but i don’t blame the coaches for accepting the terms of their contracts. i blame the presidents and athletic directors for establishing the conditions for such contracts in the first place.

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  2. simpl_matter
    January 30, 2011 at 11:18 AM

    Sounds like you’re chasing the wrong dream, gastr1.

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    • gastr1
      January 30, 2011 at 11:35 AM

      I guess my take on that, in part, is that I am living a dream that is undervalued by a vast majority of others who prefer to throw their own hard-earned money at organizations that rake in so much cash that they can give it away to underperforming losers. With no apparent accountability.

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      • 69Dawg
        January 30, 2011 at 7:26 PM

        Last time I checked football coaches didn’t get tenure. Once you academic types get it you frigging retire on the job, so please spare me the oh pitiful me bull s*t. If you don’t get paid enough get another job like one at which you have to work more than 9 hours a week.

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        • gastr1
          January 30, 2011 at 8:42 PM

          Last time you checked you were right about no tenure for football coaches, but if you read my full post I acknowledged something toward that end. However, I wasn’t aware of any conversations I’ve had with you in the past about how much I work; since you have so kindly made an assumption, though, I will point out that I worked 80 hours a week each of the first three weeks of 2011–school wasn’t even in session yet–and that I and everyone else in my department averages about 60 hours a week during semesters and more during times when big research deadlines loom. When semesters are out we don’t get paid at all, yet every summer since getting hired I have worked on things I did not have time for during the school year all but three weeks out of the summer. I didn’t get those awards by being a slacker, friend.

          I kick ass at my job. Mark Richt did not kick ass at his this past year, yet he got a massive bonus, and I got a salary cut.

          Strikes me as funny how lots of people believe in meritocracies… except when they don’t. Support your local SEC bureaucracy, folks. They know just how to use your money.

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        • Mayor of Dawgtown
          January 30, 2011 at 9:43 PM

          69, while football coaches do not have tenure they do get a golden parachute when let go that is often millions of dollars unless you do something the school can say allows firing for cause. Then when you sue, if it is a state university, the school claims sovereign immunity.

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        • Stoopnagle
          January 31, 2011 at 10:08 AM

          You 1. don’t know of what you speak and 2. should work on your reading skills.

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  3. ericdawg
    January 30, 2011 at 11:25 AM

    Just shows how really smart GT folks are giving CPJ a bonus 2 – 3x than any other of those losing coaches. HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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  4. ericdawg
    January 30, 2011 at 11:28 AM

    I think GT folks think they are 3x more smart and classy by doing so, as the always claim they are.

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  5. Dawgwalker07
    January 30, 2011 at 11:53 AM

    I think it shows Tech is 3x happier with a losing season than we are.

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  6. Bulldog Joe
    January 30, 2011 at 1:09 PM

    If you are guaranteed an extra $25K either way, I guess it doesn’t matter what play you call on 4th and inches from the 2 yard line.

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  7. will
    January 30, 2011 at 1:40 PM

    Paulson just made 5 billion dollars for making rich people even richer. If you can’t except the fact that the market grossly values other occupations more than others you are going to have a pretty miserable existence.

    I am training to be a doctor and won’t make a tenth of what one of my buddies on wall street makes. Oh well, I am happy with my choice and am proud and happy for his success. Richt and Johnson are in entertainment and are paid accordingly, I don’t see the issue with this. I am sure the bonus is based on reaching a bowl game, seems reasonable to me.

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    • Dawgfan Will
      January 30, 2011 at 1:51 PM

      Yep, I figured the bonus was bowl-related as well, regardless of how crappy the bowl was.

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    • baltimore dawg
      January 30, 2011 at 2:04 PM

      excuse me, but if “the market” which you prize so much had been allowed to function of its own accord in 2008 and 2009, paulson’s hedge fund would have been destroyed utterly through its counterparty relationships with tbtf banks, and instead of earning $5B in 2010 he would have been cashing out his 401(k) to make ends meet. and i think that’s gastr1’s basic point: the absurdity of systems that reward failure of whatever scale. that’s not the sort of market adam smith had in mind.

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    • gastr1
      January 30, 2011 at 6:05 PM

      I think that Richt and Johnson would beg to differ about what business they are in (well, Richt, anyway, who knows about Johnson). NFL coaches, they’re in entertainment. College coaches, though, are educators at the heart of it. I know part of the reason I have as much respect for Mark Richt as I do is because he has mentioned this fact repeatedly and has put graduation rate and performance in the classroom at the same level as performance on the field.

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  8. Reptillicide
    January 30, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    He’s got bigger fish to fry.

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  9. Spike
    January 30, 2011 at 5:20 PM

    I’m okay with a bonus for a bowl game… If they WIN the DAMN GAME!!

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  10. Go Dawgs!
    January 30, 2011 at 6:20 PM

    Could have something to do with the fact that our last conference title (6 years ag0, 2005) is 3X older than Tech’s (2 years ago, 2009).

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  11. OldDawg55
    January 30, 2011 at 8:10 PM

    @gastr1, my sympathies….I recall when I was an officer in VietNam, having my sleep interrupted constantly by mortar/rocket fire, I thought, you know, with my advanced degree I could be doing a helluva lot better somewhere else…like teaching! But my bonus of $65 a month for combat made it too tempting to stay on…and, Hell, my men made a helluva lot less for making my position look good. ..and by the way, I was on a losing team!

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    • gastr1
      January 30, 2011 at 9:27 PM

      Hey, OldDawg55, I have a job I love and wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

      Thank you for your service.

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    • Mayor of Dawgtown
      January 30, 2011 at 9:51 PM

      I also want to thank you for your service OldDawg55. And you were not on a losing team. The team was kicking ass. The leaders decided not to play anymore for other reasons.

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  12. uglydawg
    January 30, 2011 at 9:28 PM

    OldDawg55….I was on that same team but I don’t remember us losing.
    Seems we weren’t allowed to go for it on second and one, much less fourth and inches. The crowd left and the coaches threw in the towel.
    But we did get “free mail”.
    Every experience we have molds us into who and what we are. I wouldn’t take anything for mine..I have been blessed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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