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they play a number of roles they provide a lot of money
as I said %uh
well north Carolina state's a good example when they hired their new basketball coach
the %uh they knew that they would have to pay about two million dollars if they wanted
to get somebody of the caliber that they were looking for
the school didn't have that money
the wolf pack club which is one of the most powerful alumni booster clubs in the country
they stepped up and said
no problem we have the alumni they're willing to write checks tomorrow
we'll pay for that coach and it goes back to the coaching salary structure that we talked
about
that much of the coaches salary structure is paid for by media contracts and booster groups
they also
have a negative impact
they often
pay players under the table
they get them cushy off-season jobs arkansas' football program was on probation
for a number of years
because an alumnus
was hiring kids in the summer they were no-show jobs
%uh where they were being paid five hundred dollars a week for not even showing up for work
%uh that's the negative side of the alumni but for the most part they are the most avid
boosters
%uh who not only by season tickets you know they build stadiums
t. boone pickens
gave a hundred and sixty five million to Oklahoma state
to build the T boone pickens stadium
%um
Phil knight who I know you want to talk about at Oregon he's given upwards of four or five hundred million
dollars to that program and stanford where he went
they are the people who really support these programs so what's in it for them
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phil knight's a good example
he has a suite
in oregon
%uh where
he has a headset
where he can actually listen in on the play calling
the coaching staff
actually goes to his house every June and outlines their what they're doing with recruiting
what their game plan is for the upcoming season
they actually have an athletic director
at oregon who during the football season
his entire job
is to make sure the that phil knight is happy
he picks he picks him up at the airport when his private plane flies in
phil knight keeps his three hundred thousand million-dollar motor home
in the parking lot
all season long
goes there goes up to his suite
and it just it just
it gives them
power access
makes them feel special
do they ever these booster clubs phil knight do they ever do anything for the academic side of the university
they do they Phil knight built the law school named it after his dad
%uh they also use it though
to have incredible sway
for instance %uh
phil knight the way he got got into founding nike was he was on the track team at Oregon
%uh and he was unhappy with what was going on with the track team at oregon
he had pressured the school to to fire the coach to hire somebody else
they sort of pushed him off for a little bit
then he gave a hundred million dollars to the business school at stanford
and that was seen largely as a shot across the bow of oregon saying listen
my money can go elsewhere
if you don't do what I want
this is what's going to happen and within about a month of him giving a hundred million
dollars to stanford the oregon track coach was fired
and they hired the guy that he wanted
so
s