6 June—The Monitor doesn’t ordinarily waste words on anything related to sports, but everybody in Connecticut is expected to follow University of Connecticut sports, if only because our taxes support them in large part (as well as the bloated, overpaid, and inept university administration, of course). And everybody loves UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma. For good reason.

So when a news reader on one of Connecticut’s left-wing radio stations (WNPR, as it happens) announced yesterday that Coach Auriemma had just signed a five-year contract giving him an annual base salary of $400,000, our admiration for Geno increased exponentially. Even we knew that, like most collegiate sports coaches, Geno had been making seven figures; and now, knowing how dire UConn finances were, Geno had magnanimously taken a massive pay cut. What a guy! We all know he’s nice. But this is nice on steroids.

But it turned out that, in typical left-wing radio fashion, the Auriemma contract story, while not incorrect was incomplete. True to its nickname, as regular listeners know, left-wing radio demonstrates a noticeable anti-GOP bias in political reporting and lately flavors news to make Sam Alito and Israel look bad. It’s okay in Alito’s case, if only to a limited extent. But poor little Israel? So what about Geno Auriemma?

It seems the WNPR news reader had neglected to mention that Coach Auriemma’s relatively meager base salary is to be augmented by an additional $2.94 million for speaking, consulting, and so-called media obligations—and increased by $200,000 each year through the term of the contract. A small matter, perhaps, but still worthy of mention, if only in the interest of accurate reporting. But it is WNPR.

It also should have been worth noting, even on WNPR, that the first year of Geno Auriemma’s new contract makes him, at $3.34 million, the highest-paid women’s basketball coach in the country. For now, anyway, until Louisiana State University—like UConn, a public land-grant institution—plays catch-up-and-surpass.

Not to take anything away from Geno Auriemma (or his players, who also deserve to be paid for their efforts), but the astronomical sums thrown at sports are just plain ludicrous . . .