There's a horrible country song that says rain somehow gets a guy laid. Basically rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, whiskey makes Boogiewoogie's momma feel a little frisky or something like that.
Well, the same theory applies to college basketball. Wins make fans, fans make schools money, money makes athletic departments put out (in this case money).
But what defines winning? If you're Niagara, making the NCAA tournament is a victory. If you're Kentucky, Final 4 is successful. If you're Louisville - it's more along the lines of Charlie Sheen style "Winning!". Having your coach get caught in a sex scandal, losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and losing recruits left and right to an instate rival makes Tom Jurich shell out for your services.
Rick Pitino currently makes $3 million dollars a year. He received a hefty retention bonus last year that spread over installments pays Slick Rick $3.9 million a year. Tom Jurich says that in order to keep him at his current total salary, he'll be paid $3.9 million after the retention bonus is paid out in 2013. Thus, an increase to base salary of 30%... 30%!!!!
Working in compensation, I'll tell you no one gets a 30% increase except your top performers. Pay for performance. Performance = winning. My problem is that I'm not so sure that those accomplishments Pitino had this year (or the last two) warrant that 30% base salary.
But hey, in business it's not about what you do or what you know as much as who you know. I'm trying to figure out just what Pitino knows about Jurich.
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