If a coach in the Mid-American Conference has a couple good years, it is only a matter of time before a larger conference swoops in offering twice the salary to skip town.
That was the case last week when Ball State University soccer coach Michelle Salmon accepted the head coach vacancy at the University of Cincinnati, a member of the Big East.
Salmon came to Ball State two seasons ago and promptly led the Cardinals to back-to-back MAC regular season titles, the first two titles in the program's history.
In two seasons she compiled a 26-9-5 record but next season will try to turn around a Bearcat program that has gone 13-19-4 over the past two years. Included in that two year record is two straight 3-7-1 performances in Big East games good enough for sixth and seventh place finishes in the National Division of the Big East. In direct contrast to that Ball State went 8-2-1 in 2006 and 9-1-1 this past season in route to its back-to-back MAC titles.
All this points to Ball State being the higher quality of program.
For those of you thinking that Cincinnati is better for the simple reason that it is in the Big East and not the MAC, here's a final confirmation that Ball State is indeed the better of the two programs.
The final Great Lakes region poll had Ball State ranked No. 14, meanwhile Cincinnati failed to even get a vote.
So why would a coach leave a better program for a lesser? For the same reason Brady Hoke will be upgrading to most likely the Big Ten in the next few years. The reason being the MAC is one of the worst paying conferences in the country and no matter how well you do in this conference, the national media will never give you the same respect of a big conference team.
The USA Today did a survey of coaching salaries in football this past year and the MAC was last, behind the likes of the Sun Belt or the Mountain West conferences. While that survey is football and not soccer, it is an indicator of how cheap the MAC is when it comes to coaching salaries.
So Salmon's decision was stay at Ball State where she has been for two very successful years or go to one of the top conferences where she will make more money but coach a team that needs a complete re-haul on talent.
I can't sit here and blame a coach who obviously is very good at what she does for taking a job that pays more. Isn't that what just about everyone does? When you graduate, will you not take the top paying job with good potential? I will be and unless you gluten for punishment you will be too.
Salmon is one coach in a long line of coaches who have jumped to a bigger conference for more dough. It's a problem a conference like the MAC will always face, even if it starts paying more.
As a Ball State fan you should just be glad she jumped from the MAC to the Big East. Some coaches don't even do that. Take the University of Hawaii's now former football coach, June Jones, for example.
Earlier this month he jumped from the WAC and a team that went 12-1 to Conference-USA and a team that won a couple national championships when listening to Devo was considered cool but was 1-11 last season.
Write to Levin at levintblack@gmail.com
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