Coaches have been milking the system for years and years with no end in sight. Like you, I have bemoaned the outrageous salaries that these guys make and colleges should be ashamed. No college coach is worth $10 million a year and the great majority are not even worth $1 million a year. Yet here we are. A guy like Mike Young who is making $200,000 a year hits the jackpot with a job at VT and his salary is multiplied 10 times before he even coaches 1 game. Brent Pry was given a $4 million contract right out of the gate and he had never even been a head coach. I know the arguments will be made that this is only capitalism at work and we should let the market decide. If that is the case then the market is now deciding how much an athlete is worth. If capitalism is used as an argument then those using it should have no gripe regarding how much athletes can make. Others will say that a successful athletic program brings prestige and helps to increase resources that benefit the academic mission of a university. That may be true in some respects but given the amount of resources that a school like Alabama puts into athletics, then it should be an academic powerhouse, yet its national rank is 170. Virginia Tech's rank is 47 and its athletic budget is half that of Alabama. So, in the end, I know I am just spitting into the wind. The current system is a mess but as long as TV ratings remain high and athletic arenas remain filled then nothing will change. The only thing I can change is how I respond to what is going on and like many others I am close to the breaking point.