JACK'S SMACK: Mizzou stadium grows as academic budget shrinks

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - I can't help from thinking about the landscape today of college athletics.

It's completely out of whack.

It's mind-boggling to watch these universities deliver million-dollar contracts to their coaches, while tuition soars out of control. And I'm not buying this nonsense that athletic departments exist on private donations.

A salary of $2 to 3 million a year has almost become common place for coaches at the highest level.

Professors and instructors are just trying to hang on to their jobs.

The new football playoffs will generate monopoly type money for their universities.

How much of it, do you think will be directed to academics and research? Zero.

The new playoff is expected to create a $400 million annual windfall, more than twice what the current BCS is bringing in.

We get news this week that the University of Missouri received a secret donation of $30 million for improvements to the football stadium – a $200 million project at Faurot Field.

Still, the stadium, when complete, will rank only 9th in the SEC.

While Mizzou fans find joy in this, not all is peachy behind the walls of higher learning in Columbia.

The same day we heard about the $30 million gift to the athletic department, came the news Missouri was slashing $35 million from its $3 billion a year budget.

Teachers are getting clipped at record numbers.

The university has shaved $11.5 million in salaries – and eliminated about 180 jobs.

The academic side is getting hammered, while money flows freely for athletics.

Mizzou fans seem to be caught up in all the SEC stuff.

I still haven't decided if bigger is better in the new conference affiliation.

I do know this: Our priorities are all screwed up when it comes to what our universities should really represent.

That’s Jack’s Smack.