Since MSU women's basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie has arrived at MSU, she's changed the face of the team. Now she's getting a raise.
After signing a revised five-year rollover deal, McCallie's base salary will jump nearly $100,000 — from $232,875 to a flat $325,000 — and end up netting her $500,000 annually, with incentives that could push the total to $643,000.
It's good to see that after a promising season, MSU was quick to present McCallie with a revised contract, especially considering speculation that other schools were expressing interest in her, following an incident with her husband in Florida a couple of weeks ago.
A cynical person might say the timing of McCallie's new contract is suspect, coming somewhat quickly on the heels of the charge that McCallie's husband, MSU Associate Professor of economics John D. McCallie, swung a garbage can at, and subsequently bit, a police officer in a Sarasota, Fla., airport.
But the fact of the matter is, according to MSU spokesman Terry Denbow, this contract was under discussion during the season.
Nevertheless, this contract is representative of MSU's commitment to athletic excellence and its willingness to do what it takes to maintain that excellence.
Face it, Coach P is worth it. Her work with the women's basketball team has been nothing less than stellar during her time here, and repeated appearances in the NCAA Tournament stand as testament to this fact.
In fact, we're getting her for cheap. By comparison, Pat Summitt, head coach of Tennessee's women's basketball team, is guaranteed $1.125 million, and Oklahoma's Sherri Coale received a raise in June that guarantees her $550,000.
Traditionally, women's basketball has not been exceptionally popular. But under McCallie's direction, the popularity of MSU's women's basketball has skyrocketed, ranking 10th in the NCAA with an average of 6,646 fans per game this season.
Fifteen of the top single-game crowds in the history of the NCAA came since McCallie took over.
So, not only is McCallie good for MSU basketball, but also she's good for MSU. Period. The more our basketball program succeeds, the higher our national profile becomes and the more attractive we are to potential students.
Beyond that, McCallie has single-handedly made MSU women's basketball more popular and, in doing so, is helping to bring more money to MSU by bringing in more fans.
Bumping up her incentives — such as giving her $10,000 rather than $5,000 for making it to the NCAA Tournament, adding a $10,000 bonus for advancing to the second round and doubling the amount she gets for winning the national championship from $25,000 to $50,000 — is another way to encourage McCallie to push the Spartans as far as she can.
Not, of course, that she needs additional incentives.
But it helps.
And hopefully, it will help her to stick around for years to come and lead our team to more victories.
