by Jim McGrath

Created on: April 13, 2011   Last Updated: April 14, 2011

As the college basketball season wound down to a close earlier this month, millions of fans watched the Cinderella dreams of  Virginia Commonwealth (VCU), and then Butler, falter under the pressure of better talent. In the end, Connecticut, a longtime roundball powerhouse, cut down the nets in Houston and gave their 68-year old coach Jim Calhoun his third championship.

For Calhoun, the celebration was the culmination of a trying season, which saw his Huskies finish ninth in the Big East. After thirty-plus years of coaching, Calhoun could probably live for another season with a ninth-place finish, but his reputation was tarnished more by charges of recruit tampering within his program, which turned out to be true, resulting in a three-game suspension for next year.

But Calhoun may not stick around for next season. His contract with U. Conn paid him a handsome $2.3 million salary this season, plus bonuses with added hundreds of thousands more. Calhoun is a rich man and a Hall of Famer who probably doesn’t need to face the embarrassment of watching someone else coach his team next year.

However, his base salary paled in comparison to the $3.8 million paid to Kentucky’s John Calipari or the $3.575 million shelled out to Florida’s Billy Donovan. In fact, all three men were paupers next to Louisville’s Rick Pitino who earned over $7.5 million this year, mostly due to a $3.6 million bonus which he earned for .. wait for it.. completing three years of his contract. There is another $3.6 million waiting for him in 2014, assuming he can simply do his job.

It was newsworthy when VCU’s Shaka Smart saw his salary quadruple from 325K to 1.3 million over eight years, but in reality, his salary would still be lower than 26 of the coaches from the NCAA tournament.

Oh yes, this does not necessarily count the money coaches make from “camps,” shoe deals and TV/radio shows.

Basketball coaches are not alone. Many football coaches enjoy seven figure salaries, free country club memberships, complimentary cars, use of the university plane and such to walk the sidelines of proud football schools like Michigan and Ohio State. In a true story of irony, Buckeye coach Jim Tressel and several of his players fell under the watchful eye of the NCAA sanctioning committee when it was learned that the players may have sold memorabilia for as much as ..wait for it again.. $2,500.

Oh Mother of Pearl, the humanity!

For what it’s worth, a university

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