Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy asked one of the stupidest questions in the history of sports Tuesday.
According to Ross Dellenger, Murphy was speaking with University of Wisconsin chancellor Rebecca Blank during a hearing, and suggested the salaries of college football coaches be capped. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
He asked, “Your head coach makes $4 million a year. What’s the problem with paying him the salary of the average member of Congress and spreading the additional dollars (to other sports)?”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) to UW chancellor Rebecca Blank: “Your head coach makes $4 million a year. What’s the problem with paying him the salary of the average member of Congress and spreading the additional dollars (to other sports)?”
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 15, 2020
To make matters even crazier, Blank seemed to agree that restricting pay wouldn’t be the worst idea on the planet!
In a way, Blank agrees. She’s open to consider an antitrust exemption that would “allow us to restrict coaching salaries.”
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 15, 2020
I understand that Murphy is from Connecticut, and nobody from that state gives a damn about college football. Why would they? The Huskies are atrocious.
Having said that, there’s no way anyone can be dumb enough to think capping coaches’ pay at $175,000 is a smart idea.
Just so we’re clear here. Taking money away from Wisconsin football coach Paul Chryst, capping his pay at $175,000 and then spreading money around to coaches at sports nobody cares about is laughably dumb.
It sounds like a proposal cooked up during a gender studies class where we live in a land of fantasy and delusion. It doesn’t sound like something that’s based in reality.
Do you want to know why major college football coaches make the money they do? It’s because they win, raise the profile of the university paying them and they sell out stadiums. Nick Saban made nearly $9 million last season at Alabama, and I could easily argue that he was underpaid.
When is the last time 100,000 people bought tickets to watch swimmers, tennis players or kids run track? That’s never happened because people just don’t care.
On any given Saturday in the fall, college football dominates everything.
If you think college football coaches should be paid like members of Congress, then you don’t know anything about sports. It’s that simple.