If This Guy's Any Good, Hawkeyes Got a Bargain

This week, it was announced Chigozie Ejiasi will earn a salary of $44,000 per year in his new role as director of player development for the Iowa football team.

"I'm confident this approach and this position can help us reduce the likelihood of having another off-the-field year like we had in 2007," said Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta.

Ejiasi is 26 and the job is in his third year of working on the Iowa staff after playing football at the school. So, 44 grand is nothing to gripe about. And who's to say the job isn't merely cosmetic, a public-relations move?

But if Ejiasi has a positive effect on the Hawkeye players and helps keep the team out of the police logs and news sections of newspapers, 44 grand is a steal.

It isn't as if Iowa throws nickels around like manhole covers when it comes to the football staff. By my math, Iowa's nine full-time assistants were to earn a combined $1,626,700 in 2008. Strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle's salary is $220,000, and his assistant, Raimond Braithwaite, earns $85,000. The base salary for head coach Kirk Ferentz was $1,470,000, with his total compensation about twice that.

Hey, if the market bears it, fine. I'm not the one paying for it. Which is good, because given the way things are going in Washington and Wall Street, you and I will be paying for a lot more things very soon.

I'm just saying if Ejiasi helps keep two or three Hawkeye players from going wayward in their personal lives, he's earning his paycheck. And he'll be helping all of the aforementioned to continue to earn theirs.