Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

we'll see about Rhule.

Winning at Temple, Baylor AND Nebraska would be impressive

the canoe paddler has a chance in the West this season with a new coach in Madison, new coach at Purdue, and Brian Ferentz celebrating another Father's day in Iowa City

same goes for Bert in Champaign

I'm OK with that

from FB........

Well,  obviously that's not real.  Was that from an Oklahoma FB?

Rent-free 24/7

But chasing the money is coming at a cost to what else college football has traditionally been about - the fan experience, protected rivalries, and maybe the alumni culture. Which is what the Sooners fan is pointing out. Those three decline as CFB focuses only on money.

To the fans who retort "more money, better coaches and better faculties, etc..." I believe your words quantify a point I'm trying to make about the structural limit to paying more for better coaching or picking up the arms race of better facilities. If ALL 16 SEC Teams pay their head coach $15M/yr thanks to the new TV deal it doesn't progressively yield more Sabans or Kirby Smarts. Texas and Texas A&M are learning the hard way paying Sark and especially Fisher like Kings. What instead happens is average coaches like Mel Tucker getting paid like a National Championship coach. And there's also a structural limit to money proportionally resulting in increasing wins due to the competition factor.

Huh?  Sark isn't even in the Top 17 paid coaches.  I mean, you could still argue that he's overpaid, but I don't think it's really appropriate to say he's being paid  "like a king" unless David Shaw, Mario Cristobal, Matt Rhule, Lane Kiffin, James Franklin, Josh Heupel, Pat Fitgerald, and Chip Kelly can also all be accused of being "paid like kings." Honestly being almost out of the top 20 is sort of unheard of for a coach at Texas, but given his prior results it seems about in line .

1. Nick Saban, Alabama – $11.7 million
2. Dabo Swinney, Clemson – $11.5 million
3. Kirby Smart, Georgia – $11.25 million
4. Lincoln Riley, USC – $10 million
T5. Brian Kelly, LSU – $9.5 million
T5. Mel Tucker, Michigan State – $9.5 million
T5. Ryan Day, Ohio State – $9.5 million
T5. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M – $9.5 million
9. Matt Rhule, Nebraska – $9.25 million
T10. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss – $9 million
T10. Josh Heupel, Tennessee – $9 million
12. David Shaw, Stanford -- $8.925 million
13. Mario Cristobal, Miami - $8 million
14. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan - $7.05 million
15. James Franklin, Penn State -  $7 million
16. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern -- $5.748 million
17. Chip Kelly, UCLA -- $5.6 million
18. Steve Sarkisian, Texas -- $5.45 million

https://fansided.com/2023/03/29/highest-paid-college-football-coaches-2023-salaries/

https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/ncaa/looking-at-the-top-college-football-head-coach-salaries-in-2022/328860/

Hmm. I wonder why Luke Fickell is not on that list. He's making about $8 Million this year, as I recall.

Some of the numbers have changed so I cobbled it together from a couple of different lists.  Totally possible I missed Fickle.

But Sark's salary hasn't increased, so if someone else is being paid more than $5.45M/year and isn't on the list above, that just moves Sark further down.

The point stands that you can call out a lot of hiring/firing/salary mistakes UT has made over the past decade, but "paying Sark like a king" isn't really one of them, at least not compared to other major programs out there, and general salary expectations for a historical top 10 program.