Right Wing Nation

However much I enjoy ragging on idiots in academia, it’s just a bit embarrassing when they loudly demonstrate how stupid they are (journey to University Diaries to read endless idiotic rambling about Saban, Alabama, and university sports in general). All the howling about Nick Saban’s deal with UA is like wearing a big sign that says, KICK ME, I’M A MORON! It won’t do any good, but I’m going to try to give our “intellectual” academics a lesson in basic economics.

First, let’s turn to an article by an academic in Tech Central Station. I suggest you read the whole thing, but I’m going to distill a few crucial points that “intellectuals” seem to stupid to understand:

While the juxtaposition of low performance in education with enormous spending on athletics at institutions of higher learning makes for great headlines, it is a ridiculous apples to oranges comparison. The money comes from different sources, based on entirely different market forces that are hardly zero sum.

Saban’s salary simply has no bearing whatever on what college presidents or CEOs are paid, much less how education is funded. His paycheck will come entirely from the University’s $68.6 million athletic budget, which is derived from ticket sales and licensing agreements rather than taxes.

In other words, Saban’s salary doesn’t have a damn thing to do with educational priorities, educational funding, or faculty salaries. All of the yowling is, again, wearing a big sign that says, KICK ME, I’M A MORON! Even if you could find a coach who would take a job at, say, $20K, all of the howling “intellectual” idiots wouldn’t get a penny of the difference — because they come from different funds.

How hard is that to understand?

Then there’s the other crucial point that “intellectuals” are too damned stupid to understand:

If Saban is able to return the Crimson Tide to its former glory, he’ll more than pay for himself. Between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, the football team alone brought in more than $44 million. Indeed, football at successful programs like Alabama’s not only pays for itself, it helps pay for all the other sports programs on campus and pours millions into the school’s academic scholarship funds.

And how many millions of dollars of revenue did your English department bring in last fiscal year? Saban is paying the faculty salaries, not to mention all of those worthless programs and offices designed solely to make students feel like victims. Don’t like Saban’s salary? Then don’t grasp the profits from the football program.

Maggie’s Farm says:

Any moron can blather about phallocentric hegemonic narratives,

and only a moron would . . .

but running a world class football team is something entirely different.

And here we touch on a very important point: The market. Dolts who wrote dissertations on topics like Phallocentric Heteronormative Oppressive Narratives in Western Literature are a dime a dozen. Forgetting for the moment that they have done nothing that can be called research, are incapable (and uninterested) in doing anything that can be called research, and are only interested in pushing some neo-Marxist identity politics agenda (because they have no marketable job skills), such dolts aren’t worth a $50K salary. As Maggie’s Farm said, any moron can do that. But coach a top-rated football team and keep them top-rated? Not many can do that — hence, they get paid a lot more money.

Look at it this way. You need your house painted, and there are over seventy-five house painters where you live. Are you so stupid that you’d pay $100K when you could easily pay $5K?

Now, let’s say your computer is broken and there’s only one person where you live who can fix it. He’s going to charge you top dollar because his services are at a premium (he has no competition). Either you pay, or you live with a broken computer.

That’s reality, “intellectuals.” You’re the house painter, and your skills and qualifications are a dime a dozen. Deal with it.