In U.S. college sports — as in the nation’s broader blend of capitalism and socialism — political leverage can be advantageous. Winning football coaches now sit at the top of the public university food chain. They are emblems of both economic opportunity and inequality.
In the afterglow of landing the national college football championship, a university owned and operated by the state of Georgia just awarded football coach Kirby Smart a contract paying him $10.25 million this year, increasing to $12.25 million for the 2031 season. The total package is worth $112.5 million before bonuses.
The coach is by far the highest-paid public employee in a state that pays its governor $175,000 and part-time legislators about $17,000 a year. While the University of Georgia often provides elected officials with free football tickets, Georgia’s political establishment has been accused of shortchanging the state’s K-12 education system.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia recently was rated as one of the worst states for educational attainment and educational quality. It was also ranked in the bottom 10 states in which to raise a family based on five categories: family fun, health and safety, education and child care, affordability, and socioeconomics.
Coach Smart, who is living up to his name, has opened a wide lead on a list of about 10 state employees hauling in more than $1 million a year. Many are positioned at intersections between state government (and its power to tax and spend) with lucrative markets and professions. For example, the longtime chief investment officer at the Teachers Retirement System was paid $1.01 million for managing a lump of capital topping $100 billion in value in 2021.
Other $1-million non-coaches (Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins made $3.5 million in 2021) were Augusta University’s chief of pediatric and congenital heart surgery ($1.35 million) and chief of cardiothoracic surgery ($1.2 million). The university’s chairman of neurosurgery pulled in $985,500. Georgia Tech’s president barely missed the mark by making $975,000.
Facing competition for talent, it’s hard to argue that publicly owned Augusta University Medical Center should not spend some of its $3.5 billion in patient revenue to attract and keep top doctors. Likewise, it makes sense to reward coaches of a University of Georgia football program that reportedly brought in $134.5 million and netted about $86 million in 2020 (that was before the team was ranked first in the nation). While a good share of football profits can be said to subsidize other sports programs, about $20 million go toward the salaries of the senior coaching staff.
That said, the distributional economics of college football revenue might tempt Georgia taxpayers and political leaders to question whether paying that much for coaching talent is the best investment in the state’s future. What if the state paid Bulldog football coaches more along the lines of its top doctors and pension managers?
Every $10 million saved in football management costs could cover in-state tuition for 833 low-income students (at $12,000 a pop) or salaries for 100 young professors. Elite coaches making half as much would still have a higher standard of living than most of Georgia’s doctors, lawyers, and business executives — and far higher than software coders, teachers, truck drivers, cooks, and waiters. The median individual income in Georgia is about $30,000. Georgia’s household income range for the middle class has been estimated at $23,948 – $114,234. The state’s median family income is the nation’s 18th lowest at $74,833.
According to one analysis, the Peach State has the seventh lowest middle-class share of income in the nation at 45.4%. The richest 5% of residents enjoy a 23.3% income share, ranking Georgia 9th highest in that category.
Providing adequate funds for schools in Georgia and other states to propel even lower-income students into stable jobs with a living wage is a problem of much greater magnitude than anyone could solve by culling excess profit from college football. But the winner-take-all intersection of publicly funded universities and sports entertainment markets is a prime example of a star system that showers rewards on the few while leaving the many behind.
As Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn conclude in Tightrope, their book that explores the painful decline of the working class, the United States sorely needs educational and family policies that help more young people move out of poverty and create economic opportunity.
“Georgia has fallen behind and is one of only six states that does not provide funding for schools to educate students living in poverty,” said Stephen Owens of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute in a commentary on the state education budget.
A state educational system that created thousands more skilled workers at the risk of churning out fewer sports millionaires might well result in a more vibrant economy and healthier communities — and arguably, a bit less brain damage for its high-priced medical establishment to treat.
Karl Polzer is the founder of the Center on Capital & Social Equity.
