There is no price tag on the right thing to do.
    That’s not the kind of motivational motto a coach stencils on a locker room wall for his players to read as they leave for the football field, but it is the kind of motto Mike Bellotti should live by as he departs for the TV booth. Bellotti is the Ducks’ long-time football coach and short-time (nine months) athletic director, who resigned this month and is set to take a lot of cash with  him.

The State Attorney General’s office is correct in starting an inquiry into the $2.3 million “golden parachute” payment the University of Oregon plans to pay Bellotti, as The Oregonian newspaper reported Tuesday.

The right thing to do is for Belllotti to decline the payment. It’s troublesome that a man who worked as AD with no written contract would resign that job and then co-sign a $2.3 million “resignation agreement” on his way out the door.

What better way to show your devotion to the university you love than to decline to siphon its coffers?

Bellotti, who is heading to a lucrative job as ESPN football analyst, should tear up the contract and tell the university to keep the money.

Doing so will not only remove any cloud over why such an exorbitant goodbye present was made, and moreover it will keep the money where it belongs — at the university. Whether the funds come from the general fund, athletic fund, or the boosters is immaterial: it needs to be put to use at the university.

 Who needs the money more — Bellotti or the athletes in need of scholarships? Bellotti or a tainted program in need of funding to attract, and keep, quality athletes and coaches?

This is not solely a UO issue; the university is part of the state, and all Oregonians have a stake in the system of funding for athletic programs at UO or any other tax-supported school.

Further, the UO football program needs a rudder, with high profile players recently suspended for criminal acts. Bellotti, rather than staying in Eugene and serving as that balancing force, chose this moment to trade the AD seat for the TV spotlight.

The $2.3 million might be the biggest taint yet. Has not the corporate bonus binge of the past 16 months taught us anything?

 In the resignation agreement, the university stated that the payment is “in recognition of (Bellotti’s) many contributions.” Certainly Bellotti served the UO with distinction; he’ll probably end up with his name on a campus wing sometime in the next five years.

But Bellotti was well paid, at more than $600,000 a year, to make those “contributions.” Secondly, if the university wants to thank him, then throw him an honorary dinner or bestow on him the same kind of send-off you’d give a retiring tenured economics professor.

But $2.3 million? Then there’s the statement in the resignation agreement that “UO wishes to assist Bellotti in seeking a transition to other employment opportunities currently available to him.”

This is ludicrous. The man had already announced he was taking the ESPN job. Does Bellotti need $2.3 million to hire a limousine to “transition” to the airport for his first TV gig?

If the UO wants to revive its image, it should use the Bellotti Bye-Bye fund for those who truly need help “seeking a transition to other employment opportunities” — its students.

It’s a tough economy out there. A lot of young people, including most Duck football players who will not make the NFL, are trying to get a start in the job market. It is March and they are polishing their resumes. Why does Mike Bellotti need gold dust all over his?