Be a football coach and make big bucks

IT'S A SHAME about Jim Tressel, the embarrassment of losing his job at Ohio State and all.

But then . . .

According to information that Ohio State provided the Associated Press yesterday, Tressel made $21.7 million as Buckeyes football coach during his decade-long tenure before being ousted for breaking NCAA rules.

Beyond his annual multimillion-dollar salary, Tressel was also provided football game tickets valued at $104,800, more than $10,000 in Ohio State basketball tickets and more than $21,000 in bowl tickets.

You may have noticed him outside Ohio State basketball games pleading, "Who needs two?"

And there were other perks: $10,000 for membership at an exclusive country club . . . leased cars for him and his wife valued at $23,000 . . . personal use of jets and charter flights amounting to just under $60,000 . . . and all those unlimited cell-phone minutes.

"What we need to do is to pay people what they're worth," OSU president E. Gordon Gee said. "I'm the highest-paid public university president in the country and people ask me, 'Does that bother you?' I say that I hope I earn my keep every day. You think about coaches and you think about surgeons and you think about English faculty members. These are investments and we need to pay them so that they are worthy of that investment."

So what kind of tattoos can we expect from the OSU English faculty?

"Chaucer Forever," "Dickens Does It," I'm Wilde About Oscar"?

Giants Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum is challenging fans to a video competition in which they'll try to duplicate his unorthodox delivery on video for an opportunity to hit against him at spring training next year.

The "Red Bull Ultimate" competition will be judged in multiple rounds based on creativity, originality, performance and skill level, and demonstrated passion for the sport and Lincecum.

Does hair length count?