The Calhoun Rant

This is only semi-sports related. After his team's victory over South Florida last Saturday, UConn coach Jim Calhoun sat at his press conference, ready to ask questions. The first question came from a political activist acting as a reporter, and from there it got ugly. It began innocuously enough, with the guy asking about his salary. Calhoun attempted humor (he's a very caustic individual) by saying he's not giving a dime back and that he wants to retire someday. It quickly escalated, with the "reporter" talking about the budget crisis and Calhoun's high salary. After attempting humor again with his "I make a lot more than that" remark (that admittedly some could find off-putting), he became angry and started citing his statistics. The UConn men's basketball team makes the university $12million a year, according to Calhoun, and that's from where his salary is generated. It ended with him screaming at the guy to come back at him when he gets his facts straight. The "reporter" also angered the real reporters in the room by making a comment along the lines of "if you guys covered this, I wouldn't have to", for which he was roundly booed.

The fallout from this incident has been severe. He has been on every Sportscenter episode since, talking about the reaction to his comments. The governor of Connecticut spoke out and said that she is sure that Calhoun regrets the "embarrassing" incident. Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio have been discussing it all week. It reached its nadir for me this morning when I flipped on Good Morning America and it was the topic of discussion. Obviously, people are heated about this question.

So, I am jumping into the ring. It may or may not surprise you, but I side firmly with Jim Calhoun on this one. There are many problems with the "reporter" and his line of questioning. First of all was his timing. The press conference came about 15 minutes after the victory. This is no time to catch people in a trap, unless you are trying to set him up to look bad by catching him off guard. I think its important to note that Calhoun's victory over South Florida was the 799th of his career. With his win at Marquette last night, he became only the 7th coach in college basketball history with 800 career wins. It seems disrespectful to me to ask about his salary in wake of his momentous personal achievement.

Secondly is whether the question is right to ask at all. I will say this: I don't have a problem with the discussion taking place. Is $1.6 million (or more if you believe Calhoun) too much for a state employee to be making during a tight budget (not to mention a possible budget deficit)? Mike and Mike said that they had state workers from Connecticut calling in all week saying that they were being forced to take a reduction in salary, so why shouldn't he? This gets back to a pet peeve of mine with Americans. We have this tendency to want everybody to have it as bad as we have, when in my opinion we need to focus on getting everybody to have it as good as Calhoun has it. Why hate on someone who's worked hard and gotten to the pinnacle of his profession and is now being rewarded for it?

Lastly, there is the question of markets dictating the going rate. Obviously if Connecticut cut his salary, Calhoun could find approximately 324 schools that would fire their guy to hire him in a second. He's been loyal to UConn and built that program by himself, so it seems like he wouldn't do that. If he did, however? He'd be lambasted and hated in New England. That just doesn't seem right to me.

So, on this question, I fall decidedly into Camp Calhoun. I'm not a huge fan of the guy, but I think he's dead right about this. And, he speaks out on a lot of issues surrounding college athletics, and I think he's usually right. I just don't like his whiny press conferences after his teams get manhandled by my Panthers. Where do you fall on this issue?

Here's the link to the Youtube clip, if you haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdz05ql-j_E