From the AP: “Former Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti is getting $1.2 million in salary, plus an iPad, car allowance and more than two years of health insurance coverage under a settlement agreement. Under his agreement, Pernetti is to be paid his base salary of $453,000 per year through June 2014 and a one-time payment of $679,500 in the next month. He gets the money even if he takes another job. He also gets his $12,000 per year car allowance through June 2014 and health insurance and pension payments through October 2015. Pernetti also gets to keep his Rutgers-issued iPad and laptop computer.”
And this about Rice: “Rice was fired last week not for cause, meaning that under his contract he is in line to be paid just over $1million, or 75 percent of his remaining salary, plus a $100,000 bonus for staying on the job through the 2012-13 season.”
For the sake of argument, let’s agree that Pernetti was going to get fired before he “resigned” last week. I don’t think this was something where he went to the President of Rutgers and said, “hey guy, you know what, I’m not really feelin’ it anymore, I’m going to step down.” I’m pretty sure it was a “resign or be fired” type situation for Pernetti. And you know what, I’d taken it too! Over the next two years he’ll get health insurance, over a million dollars, a car allowance and he gets to keep his ipad and laptop that the school gave him.
So why not “resign,” as Pernetti did? In the world in which we live in, he’ll get another opportunity somewhere, with someone down the road. He’s got two years to figure it all out and if some school decides to hire him before those two years, he still gets all of the cash. This helps highlight why there is so much corruption in college sports. Even if you do something wrong, there’s a good chance you won’t really get penalized. Sure Rice and Pernetti were in the wrong, but you know what, Rutgers will still be paying those guys long after social media has forgotten about them. And that’s the crazy thing. Social media probably played a huge role in these guys losing their jobs, but that same social media could already care less about them. We live in this “what have you done for me lately” world, both negative and positive, and if you aren’t relevant then we don’t care. Last week Rice and Pernetti were at the forefront of our lives. In a month, they’ll both be collecting checks from Rutgers and vacationing on some Caribbean island and we’ll be talking about someone or something else.
This happens all the time in college sports. The problem, in my opinion, is that these people are getting paid so much that no one wants to be the one to blow the whistle. Hell even the guy that blew the whistle is coming under fire. We saw it at its apex in Penn State and we saw last week at Rutgers and Auburn. People will talk, but not until all the damage has been done. As is typically the case, as long as everyone is getting paid, most will look past the issues. No one wants to be the one that blows it up because they know what can happen to the whistle blower So, people keep their mouth shut even as a coach is acting like a child during practice. The last time I got fired, I didn’t get any cash, laptops or health insurance, I got unemployment. I’m sure these guys could get that too.