Occupy…the stadium?

While Occupy Wall Street continues, in protest of corporate greed, I just want to know one thing: What about “Occupy the Stadium”?

You want to complain about big salaries, maybe you should include college coaches. When USA Today printed salaries of FCS college football coaches in December 2010 usatoday.com, it made me wonder if the next great financial shakeup will be there.

For instance, Alabama coach Nick Saban made $6 million annually, $5.166 of it from the university itself. Mack Brown made $5.16 million at Texas. Dave Christensen at Wyoming (Wyoming!) made $861,000.

NICK SABAN

This in a time when universities are supposed to be having a financial crisis.

(For the record, Kyle Whittingham at Utah came in at $1.175 million, while Gary Andersen made $354,400 at USU. )

Meanwhile, an A.P. story yesterday said that Oklahoma paid former basketball coach Jeff Capel $1.75 million, plus his monthly salary AFTER firing him.

I understand binding contracts. I just don’t know why so many universities get pulled into agreeing to such huge deals. (Right, competition for services.)

With only a handful of athletic departments making money these days, it seems to me there could be a push-back on how much coaches can make. It’s hard to turn a profit when your coach earns millions.

Yeah, I know. He also generates millions.

Isn’t that what the Wall Street executives are arguing, too?