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"It just says the economy sucks out there," says athletics director Lew Perkins of Kansas, where expenses outpaced revenue for the first time since 1988, according to the department. Athletic departments are "spending what they have to. What's happened is the revenues, because of the economy, are going one way and our expenditures — travel, all those kinds of things — are going up and up and up. Tuition goes up. You have no control over it."
But Perkins acknowledges having control over what KU pays coaches, and its highest-paid by far is men's basketball's Bill Self. In 2007, Self was guaranteed $1.6 million. That season, the Jayhawks were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and advanced to the round of eight. In 2008, they won the national title as Self's alma mater — rival Oklahoma State — was looking for a new coach. He spurned Oklahoma State, and KU responded with a new deal that this season guarantees him nearly $3.4 million.
"We felt like after a national championship ... we wanted to put him in the top five or 10 highest-paid coaches," Perkins says, "and that's about where he is right now."
Perkins says the budget crunch will ease. "We're not in a panic mode at all," Perkins adds. "We think we're going to be fine. Everybody, Ohio State and all these other schools, I think we just have to manage our dollars differently than we did before. ... But you can't stop the operation."
At Kansas, the men's basketball players took a few more trips by bus instead of plane this season. Michigan State cut overall expenses in 2009, and conference meetings across the nation this spring are expected to focus on ways to trim budgets. An NCAA panel is reviewing the recent proliferation in athletic department employees.
goodmanonfox Houston Chronicle reported last night that ex-Texas Tech coach James Dickey will replace Tom Penders.
goodmanonfox
Source told FOXSports.com that it's not 100 percent that Mark Turgeon is out of mix completely for Oregon
kenpomeroy
As of this moment, K-State is clearly no worse than the 3rd choice to win the tourney.