Coach's compensation shows our priorities

In a state like Alabama, where collegiate football is a virtual religion, a successful team benefits its university in myriad ways. Everyone loves a winner, and when boosters and alumni are happy, donations seem to flourish, not just for the athletic program, but for the very core of the institution - the academic disciplines.

However, the relationship between a successful collegiate football program and support for university academics is an accidental byproduct of the priorities of the people of Alabama. Simply put, Alabama residents value gridiron success far more than educational success.

By ironic coincidence, the announcement that Miami Dolphins head coach Nick Saban would become head coach at the University of Alabama at a whopping $4 million per year, more or less, came on the same day that Education Week magazine ranked the state of Alabama 45th in public support for education. Apparently Alabama voters have no problem with that; within the last several years, a referendum that would have increased property tax for education was defeated by an overwhelming 80-plus percent margin in Dothan. No more taxes for education, even if our state does rank in the bottom 10 percent in perpupil spending.

To be fair, it's important to point out that Nick Saban's compensation - like that of other college football coaches - is primarily paid through athletic programs and generous boosters, not taxpayers. The money for football coaches and funding for education, both K-12 and colleges and universities, come from different pockets. The taxpayers' pocket is simply far more shallow than the pockets of those who seek a successful football program.

Regardless, it is simply obscene that a university's football coach makes as much as eight times the salary of the president of the same university, and that while the state of Alabama struggles to adequately fund the academic programs of its colleges and universities and its public elementary, middle and high schools across the state, there is absolutely no problem gathering enough money to make the new head coach of the University of Alabama the highest paid college football coach in America.

Our priorities are badly misaligned. The Dothan Eagle

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