[Husker] Pelini's Contract (fwd)

[todd strong]

I see the incentives as a long overdue reward for academic success and not 
as some sort of "hedge" or clause just in case Bo forgets about the academic 
side. The former coaches should have been rewarded far greater for the 
graduation rates. IMO.

"Would the boy I was yesterday, be proud of the man I am today?"
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Nolan" <nolan at romaine.tssi.com>
To: <husker at romaine.tssi.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 1:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Husker] Pelini's Contract (fwd)


>> This is still the tail wagging the dog.  In which other departments
>> at UNL are employees getting $125K/year salary incentives for the
>> academic success of their students?  An outstanding math or chem
>> teacher?  If academics is the dog and football is the tail, which
>> is the real priority?  In this, it's football.
>> (Care to compare the budgets for athletics and engineering or the
>> salary costs for football and physics?  I think I don't really want
>> to know.)
>
> Apples and oranges, Steve.  Beyond the occasional (and largely token)
> teaching award, colleges don't reward faculty for their undergraduate
> (or even graduate) teaching prowess, they're rewarded for their ability
> to publish or get outside grants.
>
> It may not be as true at UNL as it once was, but freshman year class
> schedules at most large schools tend to be loaded up with 'flunk out'
> courses, designed to winnow down the size of each year's freshman class.
> These trip up the students who don't apply themselves to their studies.
> (In most cases it isn't that these students can't succeed in college,
> it's that they don't really try to.)
>
> Of the scholarship athletes I've known, most were far more likely to
> focus on the task at hand while they're in college than their non-athlete
> counterparts, in the classroon as well as in their sport, and these are
> attitudes and skills that tend to carry over into their post-college 
> years.
> (If I had two equally qualified applicants for a job and one was a former
> scholarship athlete, I'd have a strong tendency to lean towards hiring
> that person over the other one.)
>
> The Athletic Department does value graduation rates, in large measure
> because the NCAA requires them to, and even tighter requirements are
> on the horizon, with scholarship cuts if they don't meet designated 
> levels.
> It's also true that schools want their student-athletes to stay eligible
> for athletics.  I don't find it at all surprising that Bo has some
> incentives based on academic performance.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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