Grossly inflated value of college football seen in salaries

So now it turns out that Oregon State University is paying its football coach Mike Riley $925,000 a year in salary and bonuses. The number showed up on today's Oregonian sports page in Brian Meehan's column.

And to think that last week I bemoaned the University of Oregon's compensating Athletic Director Bill Moos $550,000 annually while UO president David Frohnmayer gets $445,433.

Silly me.

When is what we pay people going to bear some relationship to their real worth to society?

On a related note, the Financial Times reported this week that the richest 2 percent of adults on this planet own more than 50 percent of the wealth. Count Riley and Moos among them. The story included this fact: "So much of the world's wealthy is concentrated in few hands that if all the world's wealth were distributed evenly, each person would have $20,500 in assets to use.

Back to Coach Riley and education real needs and mission in Oregon (and elsewhere). Riley's compensation would pay for 10 full professors at OSU or 50 full scholarships.

Here was Meehan's take on the distorted value of college football in these times: "During the past two decades public investment in higher education has declined dramatically across the country even as the economics of college football has spiraled. Perspective about this game has been lost along with college access for many Americans. It's far past time for university presidents to bring football back under control."

Amen!