The message was delivered to all of college sports but specifically to those like Southern California football coach Pete Carroll and Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari.</p><p>You make too much money.</p><p>In announcing findings from a college sports finances study Monday, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics said university presidents see escalating costs in athletics as a serious problem in this stressed economy and cited coaches&rsquo; salaries as a &ldquo;lightning rod&rdquo; issue.</p><p>With 95 of the 119 Division I-A (Football Bowl Subdivision) presidents responding, more than 85 percent said compensation was excessive for football and basketball coaches.</p><p>This season, three coaches will receive a salary of at least $4 million. Carroll tops the list at $4.4 million with Notre Dame&rsquo;s Charlie Weis at $4.2 million and Florida&rsquo;s Urban Meyer at $4 million, according to media reports.</p><p>Calipari is basketball&rsquo;s top compensated coach at $3.56 million.</p><p>If the reform-minded Knight Commission has any influence, salaries have peaked.</p><p>&ldquo;I am encouraged that we find ourselves in an environment ready for change,&rdquo; said Knight Commission co-chairman Brit Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland.</p><p>In survey comments that were kept anonymous, presidents expressed frustration.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s been an explosion of salaries, multimillion, multiyear contracts,&rdquo; one president said. &ldquo;It drives everything; fund-raising needs, ticket prices, exposure, need to win. If you don&rsquo;t win a championship, the team is no good, and you need a new coach.</p><p>&ldquo;Coaches get raises while faculty pay is frozen.&rdquo;</p><p>But presidents also expressed a powerless feeling when it comes to salaries and other runaway athletic finances.</p><p>Who&rsquo;s going to be the first to tell a coach that a $4 million salary is unacceptable?</p><p>&ldquo;I understand what they&rsquo;re saying,&rdquo; said Gerald Turner, SMU president and co-chairman of the Knight Commission. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t believe their actions independent of actions in a group can be effective.&rdquo;</p><p>Other concerns: The growth in the number of noncoaching, sports-specific personnel, facilities costs and the gap between financial &ldquo;haves&rdquo; and &ldquo;have-nots&rdquo; &mdash; not only of the larger BCS automatic qualifier schools and nonautomatic qualifiers but also within BCS conferences.</p><p>Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said change wouldn&rsquo;t be easy.</p><p>&ldquo;Cost-cutting is a contact sport in a conflict-rich environment,&rdquo; Delany said.</p><p>The presidents took aim at the NCAA, saying the national organizing body was too bureaucratic and lacks the will or authority to effect significant change.</p><p>&ldquo;(The) NCAA has created the largest rule-bound bureaucracy on the face of the earth,&rdquo; a president said. &ldquo;There are big problems in athletics, and it isn&rsquo;t whether a coach buys a player a cup of coffee.&rdquo;</p><p>The presidents see the reform-minded Knight Commission as a agent of change. </p><p>The group was created 20 years ago, and many of its recommendations, especially in improving academic standards, have been adopted by the NCAA.</p><p>&ldquo;I think it would be great if the NCAA had rules about coaches&rsquo; salaries, but I don&rsquo;t think they will ever have the guts to do that,&rdquo; one president said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in favor of the Knight Commission doing what they do if they actually do it and don&rsquo;t just talk about it.&rdquo;</p><p>Turner said change won&rsquo;t happen overnight.</p><p>&ldquo;For anyone to expect that when this report comes out all of the problems in the fiscal areas will be resolved, that&rsquo;s unrealistic,&rdquo; Turner said.</p><p>But the Knight Commission once took on academics, and a few years later the NCAA&rsquo;s Academic Progress Rate brought improved retention rates.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take hard work and persistence to see this through,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s important that a majority of presidents support collective action to address financial pressures.&rdquo;