The New Era Of College Sports: Penny Hardaway Claims He Contributed $2.6 Million Just To Try And Get Himself A Better Roster At Memphis

I guess on one hand this is the benefit of having a former star, turned former NBA player come back and coach his alma mater. If you have boosters who aren't donating enough or feel like you need more money to build a roster, just go ahead and put $2.6 million in there yourself. Also hilarious for a head coach to say this when a decade ago buying a bagel with cream cheese would get you suspended for a game. Now, I'm not great with math but even the best bagels in the world with the finest cream cheese don't sniff $2.6 million. 

I still want to know what's the goal here? I mean I get it from Penny's side. He's quite literally the coach. If you're ultra rich, sure, you get to help get players to your beloved team. But at some point it's going to go down, right? You can't be paying $9 million a year at Memphis. Not even just a Memphis thing. How many schools can sustain this? I'm all for guys getting paid, but at some point it feels like we're going the contract route more and more 

I know people also like to freak out over the money being announced. It's not always true, at least to a degree. But it's what's always thrown out when a team sucks or doesn't live up to the hype. But how pissed are you gonna be if you're Penny here? You're donating almost a 1/3 of the money and have to be the face of the program still. If you lose, people will still think you should be fired and then what? You're not giving $2.6 million every year. Welcome to the new era in sports. It's a good thing we all cheer for laundry anyways.