Editorial: Still don’t think college athletics out of control?

Anyone who isn’t convinced yet that the industry of college athletics is out of control need look no further than the recent debacle at Rutgers University.

The New Jersey university is giving its former athletic director, Tim Pernetti, his $1.2 million salary, plus an iPad and laptop computer, his car allowance and more than two years of health insurance coverage just to go away. Details of the settlement agreement were reported Monday by The Associated Press.

Pernetti resigned last week in response to national outrage that followed the broadcast of a video showing former men’s basketball coach Mike Rice shoving and kicking players during practice as well as cursing at them and using gay slurs.

Rice, who was fired not for cause, will also walk away with more than $1 million.

When the university was made aware of the video in November, Pernetti’s original response was to suspend Rice for three days and fine him $50,000 — while of course keeping a lid on the damaging video.

And this is after the Penn State cover-up, proving there are some slow learners in the lofty ranks of college sports. Well-compensated slow learners.

According to AP, Pernetti is to be paid his base salary of $453,000 per year through June 2014 and a one-time payment of $679,500 in the next month — even if he takes another job. He also gets his $12,000 per-year car allowance through June 2014 and health insurance and pension payments through October 2015.

Under Rice’s contract, besides just more than $1 million of his remaining salary, he gets a $100,000 bonus for staying on the job through the 2012-13 season.

In a world where high-dollar sports did not rule over sanity, perhaps those who should be shown the exit door would include the university president. But who knows how expensive that would be.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.