I May Have Chosen the Wrong Profession?

Yes, I was in the supermarket industry for 32 years and the transportation industry for 20 years, but this week I think I may have chosen the wrong profession and here’s why.

One profession where it seems it’s perfectly okay to be wrong most of the time is meteorology. With all of the technology available I just can’t understand how so many of these folks can never get the weather forecast right and yet they’re able to keep their jobs. Duh!!

Both James Franklin the Head Football Coach at Penn State and Brian Kelly the Head Football Coach at LSU got fired this past week. I’m not a fan of either coach and I’m not really sure they should’ve been fired mid-season, but they both got what they deserved in any case.

James Franklin was Head Coach at Vanderbilt for three seasons leaving after the 2013 season to go to Penn State. While at Vanderbilt, Franklin took the Commodores to three consecutive bowl games and a record of 24-15. He was very popular with most of the fan base for having brought success to the football program, but certainly not with the Baby Boomer. I’ve always believed Vanderbilt was noted for it being one of the best academic institutions in America and I was proud to have earned my diploma from such an institution. However, I was not proud of the caliber of players who Franklin recruited to Vanderbilt which, in my humble opinion, jeopardized the student/athlete reputation setting the school apart from the other schools in the SEC. Sure, perhaps, Vanderbilt shouldn’t have been in the SEC, but since it was that was not reason enough to bring down the academic standards just to improve the football program–it truly was disgusting and despicable. A case in point, is when four Vanderbilt football players were arrested in 2013 and charged with five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery having taken graphic photos and videos of the rape. Franklin, in order not to further scar the program, encouraged a player to delete graphic footage of the rape after viewing it and lied denying the accusation until he was forced to change his story when testifying during the court case.

Brian Kelly walked away, from what many believe to be the most prestigious college head coaching job in America, that at the University of Notre Dame after the 2021 season in order to go to LSU. He coached at Notre Dame for 12 seasons with a 92-39 record feeling restricted by the high academic standards and citing “looser academic restrictions, less program oversight, wanting to be the best with the commitment to excellence, rich traditions, and unrivaled pride and passion of LSU Football” for the move. Just thinking out loud for a moment, but I betcha going from a $2.67 million salary at Notre Dame to a $9 million salary at LSU might’ve played some role in his decision. Kelly is nothing more than a conceited, angry, greedy, and selfish “buffoon” who practiced an intimidating coaching style by yelling at his players and screaming obscenities. He’s infamous for his “over-the-top” antics on the sidelines.

You know from a previous post that the Baby Boomer believes MONEY is the root of all evil. College was the last bastion where sports were played for the enjoyment of sport–not any longer. Remember in the 1976 movie “All the President’s Men”, Hal Holbrook’s character (Deep Throat) provides information to the journalists Woodward (Robert Redford) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) about the Watergate scandal uttering the iconic line, “Follow the money”. Now, in college you have the player portal which establishes a centralized database for NCAA athletes who wish to transfer to another school effectively creating a “free agent” market for college sports. Additionally, athletes are now eligible to be paid via their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) with some athletes being paid millions of dollars each year. The Baby Boomer is here to tell you if it “smells”, it “stinks” and, now, even college sports is all about the MONEY–the root of all evil–just “follow the money”!!

Let’s just use SEC football as an example of how this has so negatively affected college sports. The average annual salary for a head coach in the SEC is $8.1 million. You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me!! Kirby Smart at Georgia is the highest paid coach at $13.3 million while Clark Lea at Vanderbilt is the lowest paid coach at $3.7 million. Really? Now, get this, if Clark Lea gets fired today there is no “payout” available, but if Kirby Smart gets fired today, he will receive a “payout” of $105 million. Huh?

So, this is what really gets “under the skin” of the Baby Boomer. James Franklin was getting paid $8.5 million/year by Penn State while Brian Kelly was robbing LSU of $10.2 million/year. Just unbelievable! Well, now for the “kicker”–Franklin is eligible for a $48 million “payout” and Kelly’s “payout” is $54 million. I truly cannot get over people being paid any sum of money, let alone these huge sums, for failing and being fired. Maybe, just maybe, this is the reason I may have chosen the wrong profession? Remember to just “follow the money”!

Why do these head football coaches in the power conferences get paid so much money and are able to negotiate these tremendous “payouts”? Well, college football is a lucrative BUSINESS driven by revenue from ticket sales, media and television contracts, and merchandise which all ties directly to a coach’s ability to win games, conference titles, get into the playoffs, and ultimately win national championships. Universities are willing to pay this gross sum of money seeing it as an investment in generating revenue and enhancing the university’s brand in a competitive environment. Hey, I understand the premise, just not the huge sums of money for coaching a team! Remember to just “follow the money”!

The two largest “pay outs” to date, Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M) $77.5 million fired in 2023 and Brian Kelly, whose contracts were, somewhat ironically, negotiated by the same AD Scott Woodward. Hmm? The Baby Boomer believes that perhaps Mr. Woodward should also be getting the axe for supreme stupidity, not only once, but twice. He evidently hasn’t learned his lesson, has he?

Let’s now turn our attention to the football players where so many are now receiving millions of dollars for going to college merely to play football–not get an education! I don’t know about you folks, but the Baby Boomer believes he went to college to receive an education as athletics were merely a distraction. Over 3400–an astonishing, and I mean astonishing number–of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) scholarship players entered the transfer portal this past year. The NIL money paid out this year to college football players is projected to be $1.9 billion–a bit obscene! Remember to just “follow the money”!

No one knows for certain how much SEC football players were paid, but Texas A&M paid $51 million, Texas $22 million, LSU $20 million, and Georgia paid $18 million for example. From football alone, the SEC paid out over $808 million in distributions to its sixteen teams with an average of $52.5 million for each school other than Oklahoma and Texas who received $27.5 million after joining the conference. In addition, the SEC schools generated another $53 million in football ticket sales. Again, remember to just “follow the money”!

Based on these observations, I’m hopeful you’re as bothered and angry as is the Baby Boomer! Oh, guess what? I may have chosen the wrong profession.