Rutgers Chick Coach Wins Money

C. Vivian Stringer, coach of the Rutgers women's basketball team, has received an extension that has an equal base salary to that of football coach Greg Schiano. This happened despite the fact that Schiano made a major bowl game and came close to a national title in the highest revenue sport on campus. A sport that brings in major TV money and has over 40,000 fans in attendance at each game. Rutgers women's basketball, on the other hand, is probably not even profitable, even with their national runner-up status, and brings in minuscule crowds and minimal TV money. So how is it fair to pay the head coaches of these teams the same amount? That's not the way the business world works. The guys that bring in the most money get paid the most, not the ones with the sympathy of the press.

I wonder what line of logic Rutgers was using when it made this decision. Hmmm. Maybe it had something to do with that whole "nappy hoes" fiasco and that boring radio guy who I am glad to not see on Sports Center anymore. So that stupid "accepting an apology rally" that they had last week actually paid off. Imus' bigotry paid off. And it all paid off handsomely. If I were Schiano, I would demand a renegotiation of my deal to one commiserate with the amount of attention and athletic success that he has bestowed upon the program. I would get the media involved on my side illustrating the double standard in play with the equal pay. How she used racial slurs and controversy to pretty much extort the University because I don't think it's a big assumption that Rutgers didn't voluntarily want to pay her so much unless she threatened to resign. That resignation would make the school look like bigots, putting them in an awkward position of having to overpay to save face.

Barring a better contract befitting Sciano, he should threaten to resign. And don't think that all the good jobs are taken. All he would have to do is sit out about 4 games and some team will be 1-3 and fire their coach early with the intent of grabbing Schiano early ala Butch Davis at UNC last season. Or Schiano could just call Nick Saban tomorrow, pretend he's with the San Diego Chargers and will pay him $6M/year and that Alabama job will be vacant before the phone is even hung up. Nick won't realize what really happened until his plane has already touched down in San Diego. After all it's not like he'll have a meeting with his players before he goes.