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The big debate: UA’s $18 million man

‘A good basketball coach fills seats and brings publicity and (money) to a university. A good sociology professor doesn’t. How much would you pay to watch an English class?’ Carl123

The story: Sean Miller reportedly will be paid $18 million to coach the University of Arizona’s men’s basketball team for the next seven years.

Your take: Is anyone worth that kind of money? The Citizen’s online community debates. Some readers note that Miller’s salary will come from the UA athletic department’s budget and won’t be paid by taxpayers; others say that’s irrelevant – it’s excessive, period.

Some representative comments:

• “No one, no one is worth that money.” – AZJD

• “The regents ought to have heartburn when they write paychecks for the left-lib professors (who) do nothing all day but complain and produce idealistic robots. Close the sociology department. . . . ” – holland

“Close the sociology department, and you’ll have more Bernie Madoffs.” – sagandraxan

• “$18 million to hire someone to train our local scholars-in-training to throw a ball through a hoop. Absurd. The university deserves every cut in funds it gets.” – wea

• “(UA’s athletics department) doesn’t even receive a penny from taxpayers or state budget. . . . Asking the athletics department to not spend that money and use it on professors is just like asking Raytheon to fork over money for UA professors.” – Dmusic

• “Good God. $18 million! The rest of us are barely making it out here. That’s . . . insane.” – 2998

• “The benefits and return on investment outweigh the cost. Believe it! Tucson will continue to be a visible player in the sports and academic world because of the these types of investments.” – davidrodriguez

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1 Gimino: UA strikes gold in hunt for hoops coach.

2 Miller’s reported $18M raises eyebrows at UA, but little anger.

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Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

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