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Don’t Blame Tennessee’s Football Coaches For Not Taking a Pay Cut
They may be a convenient scapegoat, but the reason for Volunteers woe is above them.
The Tennessee football coaching staff’s refusal to take pay cuts is much to do about nothing.
It’s great reporting by Blake Toppmeyer of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and it’s understandable why fans might feel the staff is overpaid considering the 2–4 record of the Volunteers’ football team.
But let’s say you make widgets on an assembly line and the company comes to you asking to break your union contract and make concessions.
“There’s been a coup in a foreign country where our product has always sold well and we can no longer ship there,” your employer tells you, which would be the equivalent of attendance losses suffered by college football programs this season due to COVID-19. “We all have to cut back.”
But wait, the union says! Reports have the company as one of the most profitable in the country! Even with the loss of sales, you’re suggesting a company that three years ago made more than a $106 million profit now wants me to absorb an annual estimated loss of $40 million in revenue?
Why should I have to change my lifestyle and break my contract when, based on past earnings, the company still would likely make a…
