We’ve messed up college sports so bad. And Kim Mulkey is obviously tired.
And before you say “The coaches get paid. And they can leave anytime they want.”
Kim Mulkey is NOT a job hopper. And she proved herself for DECADES before really getting paid.
The same goes for the other big name coaches out there in this profession. You think they just enter the game and BANG “here’s a million bucks!”?
Mulkey played for nothing at Louisiana Tech – the same school for four years (gasp!). Nothing but the love of the game, the desire to be great and win championships.
She was an assistant coach at Tech for 15 years. Her first salary there was $35,000.
She was then hired as the head coach at Baylor for $125,000 annual salary. Mulkey stayed there 21 years, turning a nothing program into a national power and then a 3-time national champion. Sometime after the first or second national title, she reached a million dollars annually in salary.
Mulkey was then hired by LSU Women’s Basketball and you know the rest. She’s got a 122-20 record at #LSU with the program’s first ever national championship, two Elite 8’s and a second round NCAA appearance with a 26-6 squad after inheriting a team that was 9-13 the season before.
And we want to compare student athletes 18-22 years old, who play for four schools in four years, to Kim Mulkey and other successful coaches who often coach many years at a school before making a move.
“Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU!”
After coaching there 12 years.
I was a nothing athlete, sitting the bench in high school. But at least they taught us the concept of team, staying on a team and at least attempting to be unselfish.
While the NIL and the transfer portal have brought positive changes to collegiate athletics that are long overdue, I would say as a whole they have truly attacked the fabric and concept of team and definitely the extremely important quality of loyalty – to your school, your teammates and your coaches.
Now we have players leaving schools and coaches that have poured 100% into their growth as athletes, as students and as people overall – for the next big payday, when there might not be one.
I guess you can’t blame the players and their parents for testing the waters and creating bidding wars. These are the rules and the monster we’ve created now. And we’re stuck with it. Although most people will tell you it’s not sustainable and will collapse.
What’s even worse are the people that likewise enjoy and encourage the decay.
We’ve reached a sad place.
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