The Multimillion-Dollar Head Fake is an investigative project by Jay Rosenstein, a University of Illinois professor of Media and Cinema Studies, on how the University of Illinois spends state money on its athletic department despite claims to the contrary.

Below is part one of a four-part series as presented on Rosenstein's website. It was also featured in the Huffington Post, the Champaign News Gazette, Illinois Public Media and the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s not tax money, so angry taxpayers can calm down.” That was the first reader comment posted on an on-line Chicago Tribune story.

The issue that elicited that reaction was the six-year, $18 million contract for newly hired University of Illinois, Urbana head men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood. It’s part of a familiar ritual that happens whenever the UI hires a new high-profile coach:

– “This doesn’t come out of tuition. It doesn’t come out of state funding. It’s strictly out of athletic funds,” said UI Trustee Edward McMillan in a newspaper story after a new coaching hire.

– “Coaching contracts are covered by athletic department income, not tuition or state funds,” noted UI Trustee Timothy Koritz.

– “The state of Illinois does not fund coaches’ salaries,” said official UI spokesperson Robin Kaler.

– “Intercollegiate Athletics is self supported and does not use state funds, taxpayer dollars, or university funds for our salary program,” said Kent Brown, athletic department spokesperson.

It’s a narrative that’s been repeated for years, over and over, from pretty much every corner.

Except it’s not true.

Watchdog Watch: A curated collection of investigative or enterprise stories from media partners and other independent, nonprofit newsrooms across the country. Read more here While taxpayer money doesn’t technically go to pay the coaches’ actual salary lines, taxpayer money does pay for the salary packages for most every UI coach, trainer, and full-time athletic department staff member. That’s because UI athletic department employees are UI employees, so they receive the same “standard university benefits” as all other UI employees.

And benefits for UI employees – health, dental, etc. – are paid for by the state of Illinois. In other words, the taxpayers.

The cost isn’t exactly trivial. In 2016-17, the taxpayers’ bill for athletic department benefits was just under $6 million, according to the UI’s Associate Chancellor for Public Affairs. And the cost of those benefits is an annual expense. Combined with the $2.6 million pension cost for retired coaches and other retired athletic department employees (as explained in Part Two of this series), the total cost to Illinois taxpayers for UI athletic department compensation packages was $8.6 million in 2016. Yet according to U of I Trustee Tim Koritz, “coaching contracts are covered by athletic department income, not tuition or state funds.” Maybe in Trumpworld of alternative facts.

“What I think it does is it undercuts the argument that tax dollars have nothing to do with athletics,” said State Senator Scott Bennett. “They certainly do.“