RichRod NCAA Football's Newest $6 Million Man

Well, that didn't take long. It seems that Bob Stoops is not college football's only $6 million man after all. Michigan, which finished a sparkling 3-9, paid [1] Rich Rodriguez $4.1 million to cover the cost of buyout of his West Virginia contract and associated taxes, which of course was only achieved after settling rather contentious litigation and the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. When added to his salary and related compensation of $2.5 million, Rodriguez will cost UM $6.6 million this year. That puts Rich Rod far ahead of the leader in the clubhouse, Mr. Stoops, who pulled in a paltry $6.11 million. And just for the record, Oklahoma did make it to the BCS National Championship Game.

Now, I'm not going to say that Michigan may have its values out of whack, but I would be remiss in failing to report that the university president made $553,500 and the athletic director made $380,368. Of course, it would be hard to find a BCS school in which the football coach, and in most cases the basketball coach, did not make more than the school president. I merely point it out in this case as a glaring example of how completely distorted the system has become.