Anytime contract negotiations take place with college or professional sports figures, the general public usually asks what all the commotion is about.
Hell, I'm a college student who scrapes and claws at every couch cushion just so I can afford the parking meter and a load of laundry on the weekend. Seeing six- or seven-figure annual salaries does more than make my mouth water.
While Ball State University football coach Brady Hoke's $164,289 salary this year seems enough to set me for life, I also understand where the value lies compared to his coaching peers. Simply put, when the 10th-lowest paid coach in the Mid-American Conference is also one of three coaches to lead their team to a bowl game, a pay raise is certainly warranted.
Cortlan Booker, a senior captain on this year's team, explained the reason Hoke is worth a raise.
"The program's success level is going to keep going up and up, and there's been no signs of it slowing down," Booker said.
However, let's look at the big picture when determining what Hoke's base salary should be.
Following the first winning season Ball State has had since 1996, Hoke's record with the Cardinals has ballooned to 22-37, a .373 winning percentage. That places Hoke's career record ninth out of 13 head coaches in the MAC.
Despite having a winning record in MAC play during the past two seasons, Hoke's record in conference play during his tenure is a shoddy 19-20. Even though Hoke led Ball State to a share of the MAC West Division title, the Cardinals have never earned the divisional championship outright. Thus, the program has yet to compete in the MAC Championship game.
Sure, the Cardinals had a solid year. By all accounts, it was the program's best since 1996. But Ball State's seven wins were one more than the six victories predecessor Billy Lynch recorded the year before Hoke took the helm.
Some have tried to make the comparison between Ball State's contract negotiations with Hoke to the last time athletics director Tom Collins raised a coaches salary. Last March, Collins increased women's basketball coach Tracy Roller's base salary 70 percent, making her the highest-paid coach in the Ball State athletics family with $182,000.
The salary increase came after Roller led the Cardinals to a 24-7 record and the program's first-ever home game in the postseason. Ball State won the MAC West Division outright - unlike the football team this season - and finished runner-up in the MAC Tournament.
Despite the success Ball State experienced on the gridiron in 2007, it's stupid and even teetering on the border of insanity to assume Hoke's raise should be equal to Roller's. Entering this year, Roller had a .635 winning percentage in six seasons and reached the 20-win mark three times. Numbers that to this point far exceed Hoke's success.
Hoke's best attribute is the ability to recruit talented players. In this case, it's covered numerous on-field weaknesses, including poor game management and shaky defensive schemes. At the bare minimum, those weaknesses have cost Ball State a game or two this season.
It would be nice to see Hoke's salary rise above the ashes of the MAC's cellar-dwelling contracts. He needs a couple more successful seasons, however, before Collins should be required to hand his football coach a top-notch contract.
Write to Ryan at rtwoody84@aol.com
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