Teeples: Title sharing for Ute, Aggie & Cougar football coaches about more than on-field responsibility

University athletic departments operate much the same, and in some cases, may use the same pay-grade scale as the school itself.

What it ultimately means is if a head coach has a coordinator or assistant he wants to keep, making sure he doesn’t bolt to become say, the Defensive Coordinator at North Carolina, he has to give him a title change in order to give him a pay bump. Some schools have more leeway than others, and there are exceptions to the rule. But for the most part, it’s about the money, not the title.

Or you can give a coach two titles and throw a little money in for the extra responsibility, if there is any. You commonly see coordinators also serve as position coaches all across the college football landscape.

The point is the title carousel seen among the schools in Utah is more about getting guys paid than anything else you might read into it.

Sure, coaches and administrators will praise the promoted for strong work ethic and desire to shoulder new responsibility. But it’s all a euphemism for “Dude gettin’ paid.”

Until they bolt or get fired, which is the other side of the bottom line.

Editor's note: This article has changed from its original publication. In the original, the article incorrectly read, "Each of the state’s three FCS schools saw shake-ups..." In this version, FBS has been substituted for FCS as Utah, BYU and USU are FBS programs.

Ryan Teeples — twitter.com/SportsGuyUtah — is a respected marketing and technology expert, full-time sports fan and owner of Ryan Teeples Consulting, Inc ( RyanTeeples.com ).