The biggest news in the Catholic world today has nothing to do with bishops or women religious but football. Notre Dame announced that it fired its coach, Charlie Weis, five years into a ten-year contract.
Now I love college football, but it disturbs me how big of a money game it is. If you can't produce a winning record, away you go. Big donors don't give to big losers. Meanwhile Weis will continue to get paid big bucks, thanks to his lengthy contract, and ND will search for yet another big-bucks coach.
I wonder what ND feared more: the threat of lost donations due to the Obama incident or the threat of lost donations due to the sorry state of their football program.
This is a topic rarely addressed when discussing how "Catholic" schools are, but clearly our money isn't following our priorities. It simply a reality, though, if Catholic schools want to compete with other universities–and not just on the playing field.
I'm not saying Catholic universities shouldn't have top-notched sports programs. Sports are a great part of the college experience and ND football in particular adds a lot to American Catholic culture (though I personally couldn't care less how they do, being a fan of the Maize and Blue rather than the Blue and Gold).
Still it'd be nice if coachs' compensation could reflect our values at institutions of higher education, whether Catholic and not.
