Man, how things have changed, have been changing.
BYU is keeping Kalani Sitake, and that’s a good thing for the Cougars. But it’s bigger than just that. BYU is committing resources to pay Sitake, to pay his assistants, to pay his players, to pay his recruits, to pay for everything that’s required — funds and facilities — to compete at the highest levels of college football.
Remember when BYU squeezed its pennies and nickels so tightly that it paid its major sports coaches as though their jobs were church callings, not premier coaching positions? It wasn’t that long ago.
That was then, this is now.
Kevin Young, Kalani Sitake, can you spare us a dime? About a gazillion of ‘em? Yeah, you can.
BYU doesn’t just want to be great, it’s willing to make the financial sacrifices necessary to make that a reality. The reason? It — and by it, I mean the school, the church that owns and operates the school, the school’s boosters — believes excelling at college football and men’s college basketball is worth the investment. BYU and its supporters have had resources for decades, but the school’s board of trustees, namely leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have been hesitant to sign off on that money being poured into BYU sports.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU fans fill LaVell Edwards Stadium during a game earlier this season.
Contrary to what some believe, it’s not as though the church, which is worth too many billions to count, more billions than, say, Penn State has at its disposal, is using tithing dollars (contributions collected from faithful Latter-day Saints) to prop up BYU football and basketball. That money is coming, in large part, from financially successful Cougar alums who want BYU’s teams to win.
It’s worth it for the church to now allow those dollars to flow forward because the more talented those teams become, the better those teams do, the higher the profile of the school rises, the more pub BYU and its sponsoring church get. Long-ago athletic director Rondo Fehlberg was the first school administrator anyone heard pronounce that truth all out in the open. And while he was right, it took years for it to take full effect.
It’s taking effect now.
Brian Santiago, BYU’s current AD, said at the news conference on Tuesday announcing Sitake’s extension that BYU’s intention is to win. In modern college sports, everyone knows what that requires — dolla, dolla, dolla bills.
There was a time when BYU’s Honor Code — the behavioral standard at the school that prohibits certain activities that many college students, including athletes, make a habit of indulging in, such as premarital sex, alcohol consumption and recreational drug use — was seen as a roadblock to soaring to new heights, to winning championships.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kalani Sitake and former Brigham Young Cougars defensive end Isaiah Bagnah (13) talk during a game last season.
For some athletes, living by the code is and always has been easier, but for others, it was seen as a hassle, as a nuisance to be avoided. It was more than convenient to play college ball somewhere else.
Apparently, if a program pays out a certain amount of NIL money, it’s motivation enough for college athletes — both church members and non-church members — to make a few adjustments, to adopt good, clean living, as defined and dictated by said church, or at least to adopt what appears to be good, clean living, as defined and dictated.
BYU is on the verge of reeling in one of its best-ever football recruiting classes, one with more talent, as judged by recruiting services, than any class before. Suddenly, it’s become cool to live clean and kick butt on the football field — under coaches like Sitake, Jay Hill and Aaron Roderick.
Going back to the days of LaVell Edwards, BYU has often had more than its share of good, innovative people in and around the program — guys like Doug Scovil, Norm Chow, Mike Holmgren, Andy Reid, Ted Tollner, Mike Leach, and more.
At present, it can keep rock-steady assistant coaches in the fold with the kind of salaries and contracts they deserve, according to proper market value. That was a huge emphasis for Sitake in his just-finished negotiations with top school leaders. He’s not the only one who will get a substantial bump in pay.
The school hasn’t made public what Sitake’s annual pay will be, and as a private school it is not required to release that information. But it’s been reported that his contract could be handing him upwards of $9 million per year. If true, that would more than double his pay. Rank-and-file fans, people who work hard to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, may find that kind of salary ridiculous.
But if those same fans want their team to win, that’s kind of the going rate for top-drawer head coaches. Coaches who know how to win are expensive, and Sitake, who has won 22 of his last 25 games at BYU, seems to know his business.
Anyone who saw Sitake’s news conference on Tuesday had to be impressed by his overall bearing, his manner and his words, his expressed care for his players, his feeling for his school, his love of his family, his love for BYU fans. He came across as being full of gratitude. With an extension like his, he has a whole lot to be grateful for.
His motto to his team, spoken before and after every game this season, including the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday against Texas Tech, is: “Stay humble, stay hungry.”
Now, as he’s in line to become not just filthy rich and not just, more than anyone else, the face of a program, but the face of an entire university, it’s his turn to hear and adhere to his own mantra.
Regardless of what happens the rest of this season, moving forward he’s being given the personal wherewithal and the program wherewithal to ascend to the upper reaches of college football. That is, as long as the powers that be inside that sometimes exclusive, closed-minded realm adopt new attitudes with room enough to let him and his team in.