Excellence should be rewarded. Well, unless the person happens to be too excellent or earn more than I do. Then that person should be punished. Whether it is through confiscatory taxation or other regulation, we can’t let successful people be successful–that just isn’t fair.

Nick Saban is successful. He’s one of the few coaches who have won a national championship and has two SEC crowns to his name.

And for Nick Saban, he has the unfortunate distinction of being the highest paid college football coach and the coach at the University of Alabama. Has anyone ever wore a bigger target on his back?

In a letter to the editor today in the Montgomery Advertiser, one Alabama fan continues the chorus of criticism regarding Saban’s salary.

Not only is Mr. Saban now the highest paid college coach in the country, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Mr. Saban’s salary is about eight times that of Dr. Witt, the university president.

Where was this persons anger when Shula made approximately four times what Dr. Witt earned as president? The answer, nobody cared because Shula wasn’t successful. He wasn’t threatening to anyone. Society has developed an unfortunate habit of lauding under-achievers and attacking the successful.

The letter writer goes on to argue for the NCAA to set a salary cap. Good luck with that.

The last time the NCAA attempted to arbitrarily regulate economic interests was the old television contracts. It limited the number of appearances on television and thus hurt some schools while helping others. A salary cap would do much the same thing, limiting the economic earning power of certain coaches. The cap would immediately end up in court–just like the television contract did. And the NCAA would lose a salary cap case on anti-trust grounds just like it lost the television case before the Supreme Court in NCAA vs. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma.

A salary cap is the pipe dream of people afraid of competition. Nobody wanted a salary cap when Alabama had Mike Shula earning almost $2 million per year. Now with Alabama poised to win and with a competent coach at the helm, people want a salary cap.

I think I see the real goal here.

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