Spread athletic scholarships around

Fran McCaffery, University of Iowa men's basketball coach, is the second highest paid Iowa state employee at nearly $1.8 million annually. The cost to send a student to the University of Iowa for an in-state resident is approximately $23,000 per school year, which includes tuition, room and board, books, and other living expenses.

Fran's son, Connor, is currently on a full ride basketball scholarship at the University of Iowa. Fran's younger son, Patrick, is scheduled to join the Iowa team in 2019 - also with a full ride scholarship. If Fran paid for both sons' education for four years each, that would amount to only 10 percent of one year's salary.

Why not make these two scholarships available to eligible recruits who are not as financially secure? What if a top recruit is considering the University of Iowa, but no scholarship is available?

I realize Fran is not the only head coach to do this (Steve Alford comes to mind). But when the basketball program is seemingly struggling performance-wise, changes are in order.

Don Drahos

Cedar Rapids