Last Saturday, college wrestling fans packed the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City to watch the third and final day of the NCAA wrestling championships.
The highlight of the night was obviously the final 10 bouts, where the nation’s 20 best wrestlers took to the mat hoping to earn the right to be called a national champion.
One of these wrestlers was Ohio State’s Logan Stieber, a redshirt junior who was trying to win his third-straight national title. There was a lot at stake during this 141-pound match against Devin Carter of Virginia Tech. Stieber was in pursuit of a third consecutive title, Carter’s undefeated 18-0 season record was on the line, and oh yeah, there was also an $18,447.94 bonus on the line for Gene Smith, OSU’s athletic director.
That’s right, Stieber’s dominant 10-1 decision over Carter earned him a national championship and Smith a bonus.
Smith received a contract extension in January which is filled with various bonus opportunities based off the success of student-athletes in athletics and academics. These types of bonuses have been in place in prior contracts as well.
One unique aspect of the contract is that Smith receives a bonus every time Ohio State wins a national title in sports.
The contract states that he could make six weeks extra salary for a team national title in football or men's basketball, which is more than $100,000. He also could make two weeks extra salary of about $40,000 for other team sports titles.
And, in my opinion, the most ridiculous championship bonus is the week of bonus payouts he receives for an individual national title by an athlete. Also let’s not forget that these are just bonus values that he could receive on top of his yearly base salary of $940,484.
Personally, I have a huge problem with the fact that Smith is able to receive these bonuses on top of a significant base salary. He is profiting from a student-athlete’s success.
Smith did not recruit Stieber, he does not coach or train him, doesn’t personally pay for Stieber’s scholarship and he doesn’t go to every single match, either. Smith has not done anything for Stieber that is worthy of a that bonus.
I’m not saying that Smith has an easy job by any means, and I agree that he should be compensated well, but he should not be compensated through the blood, sweat and tears of other people.
If you want to give a bonus, give it to the coaches of the student-athletes. They recruit, coach and train with these athletes. The efforts of the coaches and athletes working together win the championships, not the efforts of the athletic director.
@MLLRC93
cm001111@ohiou.edu
