No state funding in millions U of Illinois will pay coach
(AP) — Persuading a football coach with a Super Bowl trip on his resume to take over at the University of Illinois was not cheap, and leaders at the University of Illinois say they anticipated they might be questioned about paying Lovie Smith $21 million when the state's financial situation is bad.
The figure does not include bonuses the former Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach could get, the $4 million he will have to pay assistants or the almost $1 million being spent to pay off his just-fired predecessor, Bill Cubit.
University officials tell The News-Gazette in Champaign (http://bit.ly/21jAJxE ) that the money comes from donations and sports-related revenue, including from ticket sales, the Big Ten and the conference's lucrative TV network.
University professor Jay Rosenstein praised Smith's hire, but said that if the university can afford to spend that kind of money to fire one recently signed coach and hire a new one, then maybe it does not need some of the funding it receives from student fees, including money spent on ongoing renovations of the State Farm Center basketball arena.