Women's BB Coaches Pay

[swok34]

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaw/news?slug=ap-fordham-coachlawsuit&prov=ap&type=lgns

Morris, who resigned as coach of the Lady Rams in 2000, was paid an a salary of $70,000 in his last season at the Bronx-based school, while his counterpart with the men's team made $250,000, the suit said.

The suit seeks to force the school to provide equal funding for male and female athletic programs. It also asks for $1.5 million in damages and backpay for Morris.

How can something like this "further the sport of women's basketball"? I've heard Jody Conradt speak of when she started coaching women's basketball.....they coached for practically nothing.....I hear Sherri Coale talk about the "pioneers" of the game that have always put the "good of women's basketball"
even before their programs, sometimes.

Until women's college basketball begins receiving some of the TV money that men's college basketball does.....and more schools start making money for their programs......this guy may as well piss in a bucket http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/mad.gif AND, he could always go coach men and make more money.....something not very many women coaches could even ponder.

[This message has been edited by swok34 (edited 01-25-2003).]

[Bball Girl]

It takes money to take money...the difference is that there has NEVER been a problem with colleges and universities investing in men's programs even the ones that lose money. For years the New Mexico men's football team LOST $$...did they ever lower the coach's salary or suspend the program...heck no. But New Mexico suspended the wbb program for a few years and prior to that the wbb players were rumored to be cleaning the Pit after games to make money for the program. Would that EVER happen to a men's program...heck no.

Look at OU...they dropped the WBB program (briefly) when Tubbs was the men's coach...I don't remember exactly what Tubbs said...but it wasn't complimentary of women's sports...he's been on my short list since. OU now has a great coach..but they have invested some $$ into that program and Coale is getting return on that investment.

There are plenty of men's sport teams that lose money for their college or university...and it's true they are not a lot of wbb programs that make $$ for their university...but if you look at the ones that do...those universities have invested in those programs over the long haul.

Women's sports have not had the number of years of investment that men's programs have taken for granted for years. When we invest the same in women's and men's athletics over the long haul...only then will we be able to truly compare the two.

I believe Tech's wbb program does make money for the university and is self supporting...but that didn't happen over night. Pat Summit started out driving her team in a couple of vans to games and now they have their own planes. They and many others have hung in their for the love of the game...but in the end...a university can NOT expect success if they pay one coach 1/4 of what they pay another coach...that's absurd. I wonder how much the mbb coach at La Tech makes...they don't often have a great team like the women do, they aren't on tv that much, the don't always go to the NCAAs and from talking to La Tech fans, they don't get the support that the wbb program does. Therefore...the wbb coach should make more money than the mbb coach. I'll have to check on that one of these days.

I'm proud of Tech...when they hired Knight, they bumped up Sharp's base pay to be the same as his (he has some extra bonuses that she doesn't have and didn't want from what I heard).

[swok34]

OU now has a great coach..but they have invested some $$ into that program and Coale is getting return on that investment

But, Sherri didn't "start" making "big" bucks...and no, she does not make as much as Kelvin Sampson....and neither one of them even come close to Bob Stoops......
Sherri didn't start making money until her teams won over 20 games and she and her team were bringing in the support. I may be wrong but Coale is the one that has brought the $ and the support to the women's basketball program at OU.....I rather doubt it was there the first year when OU was drawing 350 fans in Sherri's first year.

I went to the men's BB game vs Colorado and I won't go to another men's game......I hate to admit this, but I resent that there were 11,000 fans in their seats and the women have barely broken 5,000 this year......it really get's my gall the way some of these Sooner fans are. I'll watch the men on TV, I just don't want my fanny in a seat when there are already 10,999 there.

The point is, did this guy prove himself? Does he make the NCAA's? Did his team put butts in the seats?

As much as I would like to see men and women's basketball coaches receive the same pay for the same job........it is not going to happen, at least not yet. And I think we are a way's from that happening......OU received money JUST because the men's team was in the final four. Connecticut, on the women's side, the champion, didn't receive one red cent. I really don't think until TV revenues ever find their way into the women's side of things.......that coaches can expect equality in pay.

I LOVE what Texas Tech did, and I wish more programs would reward solid programs the way Tech did......I think Pat Summitt probably makes more than her counterpart.

I just don't think that suing the university is the answer at this point in women's college basketball. If programs were forced to pay equally to their coaches, I really think you would see a lot of college's drop their programs.....as sad as that is.

[This message has been edited by swok34 (edited 01-25-2003).]

[MsProudSooner]

"I went to the men's BB game vs Colorado and I won't go to another men's game......I hate to admit this, but I resent that there were 11,000 fans in their seats and the women have barely broken 5,000 this year......it really get's my gall the way some of these Sooner fans are. I'll watch the men on TV, I just don't want my fanny in a seat when there are already 10,999 there."

I don't blame the men's team for the fact that fewer people go to the women's game. Both teams need and are deserving of our support. If I lived closer, I'd probably attend every home game of both teams.

Sherri Coale and her teams have done a great job of increasing the support of WBB in Norman. We need to increase the women's attendance by attracting more of the men's fans and more fans who aren't attending either men's or women's games now.

As far as women's coaches salaries are concerned, expecting equal pay w/ men's coaches is unrealistic at this time. Terrific progress has been made, but lawsuits, such as the one mentioned, only alienate the general public, many of whom already resent Title IX.