The University of Kansas presents a stark view to the cross-currents of athletics, money and schooling. On March 10, less than a day after the university fired head football coach Les Miles, athletic director Art Long was sent packing by Chancellor Doug Girod.
Long was hired in late 2018; in turn, he hired Miles, renowned for years at Louisiana State, but fired four games into the 2016 season after the Tigers lost to Auburn. Miles’ record at LSU from 2005-2016 was 114-34.
It was hoped that at KU, Miles could replicate something like his last two “losing” seasons at LSU (8-4, 9-3). But recently he was accused of sexual misconduct while at LSU; the scandal escalated, and he left Kansas.
Miles became the fourth head football coach in 11 years to leave the Jayhawks. In that time, the school has paid more than $23 million to settle the unexpired contracts of fired head football coaches.
Miles will be paid the remainder of his $2.8 million annual salary plus a $1.9 million settlement, the smallest payout of any of the school’s recently fired head football coaches.
Mark Mangino, the first coach in 40 years to compile a winning record (50-48) at KU, was fired in 2009 after nine seasons. His buyout was $3.6 million.
Others: Turner Gill, $8.3 million buyout, fired in 2011 after two seasons and a 5-19 record; Charlie Weis, $6.6 million buyout, fired in 2014 after three seasons and a 7-29 record; David Beaty, $2.5 million buyout, fired after four seasons in 2018 with a 6-42 record; add to this $500,000 to defend a lawsuit brought by Beaty after KU tried to skip on his payout.
It’s not clear what buyouts were involved when Kansas fired the last three athletic directors – Lew Perkins, in2010; Sheahon Zenger in 2011; and Long, this year.
A lot of money has been tossed around by the athletic department in recent years, hiring and firing coaches and athletic directors, yet no one is held accountable for the cyclical chaos.
For legislators, a paradox glares at Kansas, the state’s senior regents institution. State government struggles to recover from the abyss of a covid crisis and a Brownback bankruptcy, while its namesake university churns through tens and hundreds of millions to build athletic palaces and fund a salary mill for a succession of failed football coaches.
The KU athletic department is well into a five-year, $300 million project to renovate the football stadium, a place remodeled several times already. The project started in 2017, just as the state Department of Transportation was to receive proceeds from a $200 million bond issue for highway maintenance. The transportation secretary said the agency, nearly cashless, would need another $200 million in bonds in six months.
The athletic department campaign was to raise $300 million atop a $50 million starter check from a donor. Most of the money was to finance further upgrades to Memorial Stadium – more big screens, pedestrian plazas, entertainment venues – plus an indoor football practice facility (apparently to improve the team’s ability to play outdoors). And money for a new volleyball arena and more renovation at Allen Field House, the school’s luxurious basketball headquarters.
There is a big difference between athletic departments, fueled mostly through private donation, and state government finance, supported largely by taxes. But athletic departments are part of colleges and universities and are nonetheless government-subsidized, if not to the extent of, say, the English or engineering departments.
Lately it has been difficult to convince lawmakers that education at any level is worth increased investment. Local schools, a wellspring for collegiate athletics, have suffered woeful neglect in recent years. Post-secondary education has been given short shrift as teachers leave and tuition and fees continue to soar.
The disparity at KU points to an abundance of money and a poverty of judgment. Fortunes are available for athlete apartments, new skyboxes, restaurants and clubs, bigger big screens, posh locker rooms, new uniforms every week, enormous training facilities indoors and out. Indeed, the $350 million fund-raiser at KU came with that $50 million starter.
Try getting that for the department of Asian Studies. Or, even, the business school.
It must amaze at least some legislators that while athletic departments can raise almost unlimited millions, their colleagues blanch at a small raise for professors, or state aid to reduce student tuition.
It must amaze others as well. All that money out there, and we’re still scrambling to pay teachers and patch our highways.
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