LSU shocked the college football world by convincing football coach Brian Kelly to leave Notre Dame and come to Baton Rouge. One way they did it? Offering him a contract of more than $100 million, loaded with incentives.
Some people have argued that's worth it for one of college football's winningest coaches, and they point out the enormous cultural and economic impact LSU football has on our region. But some people are not comfortable with a coach getting that much money, worrying about what it means for the university and the sport itself.
We asked our Poll members what they thought. Here's what they said:
A majority of respondents said the size of the contract bothered them, though most of them said it bothered them "a little," not "a lot."
A narrow majority of respondents also said they thought the size of coaching contracts was bad for the sport, though almost 30% said they thought it was good for the sport.
Critics often contrast coaches' salaries with those of professors and others on the academic side. And our correspondents overwhelmingly do believe that Louisiana doesn't sufficiently support higher education — however, almost all of them don't think football is to blame for that. Defenders often point out that much of the money for the football program comes from donors to the Tiger Athletic Foundation, which is a seperate entity.
And in perhaps the least-surprising South Louisiana result, all of our respondents said they were football fans. In fact, most characterized themselves as "a major fan who pays close attention."
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