As they often do, SportsCenter jumped on the Notre Dame / Independence story a few days late and contributed little to the discussion, with only Brian Kelly’s most recent quote -- something he’s said consistently for weeks -- being the main bit.
“From my standpoint, being the head football coach of Notre Dame, there’s nothing better than being an independent football school,” Kelly said at the Moose Krause scholarship dinner. “I know you’re hearing all these rumors about the Big Ten and all these other things, but let me tell you one thing, the tradition of Notre Dame football is steeped in that independence.”
I’m not sure what it is about Notre Dame that makes people frame an argument with “facts” that are really disputed assumptions, but it continues to happen, in large part to fan the flames of the juiciest and most prominent off-season story of the year.
Yesterday, SI.com’s Andy Staples, one of the best guys covering the sport, once again trumpeted the often repeated, though never confirmed $20-$22 million figure for Big Ten school’s TV revenues, at least hedging a bit by calling the number a cumulative figure including bowl and NCAA tournament revenue. Yet every time people seem to mention Notre Dame’s revenues, they stick to the (again estimated) $15 million that Notre Dame gets from NBC for seven or eight home football games. Never a mention to the approximate $2 million earned for Big East basketball, in addition to the revenue the Irish earn for their other five football games, not to mention a guaranteed BCS payout.
At this point, it’s pretty clear Notre Dame is standing firm unless Jim Delany and the Big Ten try to destroy the Big East, but that’s a pretty big decision to make based only on financial gain for the conference, especially when everyone would make mountains more money with the implementation of a college football playoff. Don’t be surprised if the real repercussions from all this Cold War rhetoric will be a new postseason system, as we’ve found out that dollars and cents, not tradition, rule this discussion.
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Staying on the topic of much discussed financials, Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune pulled up the university’s tax records and got to the bottom of what Charlie Weis was actually making to coach the Fighting Irish. As Weis said at the end of his tenure, there was quite a discrepancy between speculation and reality.
For the 2008 school year, Weis earned a total of $2,927,090 in total compensation. Notre Dame payed Weis $649,090 for his base salary, Adidas paid $850,000, and Play By Play Sports (formerly Notre Dame Sports Properties) paid $1,303,000, making about 3/4th of Weis’ income coming from outside the universities’ bank accounts.
Three million dollars is hardly chump change, but it’s nowhere near the four and five million dollar numbers being lobbed around between pundits when discussing Weis’ achievements. More interesting than any of that, Weis was the second highest paid football coach on Notre Dame’s ledger. Tyrone Willingham, who hadn’t coached a game for the Irish since 2004, received $650,000 salary from the university, as part of the buy-out that came with his controversial ouster after only three seasons on top.
As the years pass, we’ll likely find out more about the buy-out paid to Weis on the last five years of his Kevin White negotiated contract. I’m guessing it’s nowhere near the amount many guessed.
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Friend of the blog Bruce Feldman has a nice piece on his blog about pipeline schools into college football, with the focus on Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas, home of center Dan Wenger, former tackle Sam Young, punter Ben Turk, and snapper Jordan Cowart. Head coach Jay Connolly has produced so many D-I offensive lineman that he’s lost count.
“Maybe 30? 35?” He guessed, when talking with Feldman.
More from Bruce:
Connolly attributes the Aquinas O-line factory to a few key factors, starting with a good strength and conditioning program. “Over the years, we have a good offseason program that has really gotten better,” he said. “Our strength coach, Rob Biasotti, does a great job. We try to build the whole core athlete and keep ‘em flexible. Then, a lot of it is working on footwork and hand placement and reading defenses.”
Connolly and the Aquinas staff have spent years going to coaching clinics and picking the brains of the recruiters who have made visits to the Florida powerhouse. It also doesn’t hurt to have an imposing group of athletes to groom.
“I take a lot of kids that look more like basketball players then offensive linemen,” he said. “They sort of grow into the position. They all have good feet and good hands. They’re coachable kids and smart kids. That’s a big part of it.”
Aquinas is a private school, but Connolly says he’s not out recruiting all these future college linemen. “We don’t go hunting for kids. Kids come to us,” he said, adding that Datko, Johnson, recent Dallas Cowboys draft pick Sam Young (a four-year starter at Notre Dame), Wenger and Gilbert, along with his two most recent standouts, Jermaine Barton and Brandon Linder, were all at Aquinas for four years.
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Finally, Brian Kelly addressed the arrest of Mike Ragone for speeding/marijuana possession on the Indiana Toll Road.
“It’s a serious matter, obviously,” Kelly said."It has to take its course, so I’m not prepared to talk in depth about it. I’ve talked to Mike. I’m still trying to put together all the facts. I think a lot of this is something we’ll be able to talk about in more detail a little bit later, but right now it’s too early to have any definitive comments.”