Money and power: Must be college sports
Oklahoma State had plenty of money to offer its next men’s basketball coach.
But the Cowboys might have been a little short on one other commodity.
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The past week has been quite a time for Travis Ford.
Quite a profitable time, that is.
He didn’t just get one raise. He got two.It was just last week that the men’s basketball coach negotiated a new contract at UMass. Then, of course, on Wednesday, he agreed to become the new coach at Oklahoma State. Though we don’t have all the details just yet, the Cowboys have surely upped the ante on Ford’s $400,000 salary.
College coaches everywhere are envious. Anyone who can get two raises in one week is genius. College coaches love their big paychecks.
About the only thing that comes close to being more important than money is power. College coaches want to rule the roost. They may have a boss, but there are plenty of places where the person with the most power does not have his name on the door to the athletic director’s office.
Which brings us to an interesting point about OSU.
You have to wonder how many potential coaching candidates might have been turned off by the power structure in Stillwater. You not only have Mike Holder but also Boone Pickens. Even though no one knows for sure just how much power Pickens portends, you can be sure he has some serious sway. No one else on campus can make a phone call and get the results that T. Boone can.
Did that scare away Bill Self? John Calipari? Jamie Dixon? Heck, even Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery?
We’ll never know the real answer to that, of course, but you have to think it played into any consideration that any candidate gave the job. They had no way of knowing for sure how Pickens’ power would impact their job. They could ask. OSU could tell. But until they were in the middle of it, they wouldn’t be able to know for sure what that relationship would mean to them.
Ironically, Pickens is the reason many of those coaches even considered the Cowboy coaching position in the first place. Without Boone’s billions, do you think Self or Calipari or any other high-level coach would’ve given OSU serious consideration?
Probably not.
On Wednesday, Travis Ford agreed to become OSU’s coach. Eventually, we’ll know how much money he’s getting. How much power he’ll wield remains to be seen.
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