The Salary Gap

In June 2001, a group of respected academicians and administrators known as the Knight Commission issued a report concerning the corrupting influence of athletics money on universities and their athletics programs, primarily their football and basketball programs.

To read the Knight Commission report, click here.

Among the practices that to which the Knight Commission objects is the practice of football coaches being paid far in excess of faculty members (page 18).  No one is arguing that SJSU coaches are overpaid � like most of us, they struggle to provide a decent standard of living for their families in the Bay Area.  On the other hand,  a first-year head coach at SJSU makes significantly more money than the vast majority of tenured full professors on campus.  In addition, Athletics is seeking to �increase [coaches�] salaries as appropriate� so that they are �competitive within the WAC� (Bell 2002, 11).  If this occurred, it would significantly increase the disparity between coaches� salaries and the salaries of other faculty members.

This would have significant consequences.  According to the yearly report of the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), faculty in the CSU are paid 12% less than their counterparts at other, comparable institutions across the U.S.  Combined with the Bay Area's high cost of living, this has hampered the ability of the university to recruit and retain quality faculty.  The university is not served if its football team is winning but its academic core is withering away.  Football coaches should indeed receive raises, but these raises should be commensurate to the earnings of their faculty colleagues.