College coaching salaries

[rwsaunders]

I spent a few days this week with a client in Baton Rogue and of course, the big news was Brian Kelly coming to Tigerland for $100M. Something like $9.5M/year, a $500K raise every year, $1.2M for a house, 2 cars and 50 hours of private jet use/year…that’s what was published, so who knows what else lurks out there. The top ten college football coach’s salaries were published as well and #10 was making $7.5M/year plus percs. Hell, Stanford’s football coach is making $9M and I wonder how that compares to a top researcher’s earnings in Palo Alto? They don’t even mention the trickle down salaries of the other coaching staff members. Nuts I tell you.

On a side note, I’m going to send a letter to the editor of the student newspaper and suggest that they take advantage of the spell check option on Word…

[Tim Porter]

RW, they probably can't affod that spell check option. . . .

[claritycycler]

A coach at a bigtime program is basically a CEO, top level football is a huge business/moneymaker. That said imo it's still insane, then there's the ongoing discussion about the relatively free labor the athletes provide to fuel the machine.

[monadnocky]

I wish I was affoded such admiration.

[JoB]

A coach at a bigtime program is basically a CEO, top level football is a huge business/moneymaker. That said imo it's still insane, then there's the ongoing discussion about the relatively free labor the athletes provide to fuel the machine.

I thought so as well, but then I learned that this is not actually the case. AFAIK, many D-1 programs barely scrape by, even athletically successful ones.

[claritycycler]

..many D-1 programs barely scrape by, even athletically successful ones.

So true. I'm referring to the elite of D1, being a D1 school does not mean its a "bigtime program" or even close to it.

[echappist]

So true. I'm referring to the elite of D1, being a D1 school does not mean its a "bigtime program" or even close to it.

Only issues is that even the head coach of schlub programs are often the highest paid public employee of that state.

All this should be spun-off and privatized.

[monadnocky]

Only issues is that even the head coach of schlub programs are often the highest paid public employee of that state.

All this should be spun-off and privatized.

Yup. As of 2020, all but about ten states' (you can probably identify which ten) highest paid public employees were basketball or football coaches. For the usual suspects, by a lot.
Absurd.

[vertical_doug]

A coach at a bigtime program is basically a CEO, top level football is a huge business/moneymaker. That said imo it's still insane, then there's the ongoing discussion about the relatively free labor the athletes provide to fuel the machine.

I don't think argument holds. A CEO of a company with $140mm in annual revenue and no profit, is not being paid $10,000,000. I think what you will find is in actuality, the CEO pay is a smaller % of annual revenue.

[caleb]

I don't think argument holds. A CEO of a company with $140mm in annual revenue and no profit, is not being paid $10,000,000. I think what you will find is in actuality, the CEO pay is a smaller % of annual revenue.

Spot on.

And, just to make the math a little tougher, football programs are not stand-alone legal entities.

Under Title XI, the football roster must be matched with recruiting spots for women, likely in non-revenue sports.

So the costs of the football program are really its costs, plus the costs of the programs and scholarships for another 80+ roster spots. Maybe we can spitball those costs at $40m for another couple non-revenue sports and 80 scholarships?

So now the coach is getting 10% (10m/100m) of the total football revenue as a personal check.

I would be shocked to see the CEO of a publicly traded company taking home 10% of revenues as personal compensation.

P.S. This is a nonprofit philanthropic organization.

[j44ke]

A pretty good overview from Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbe...h=76a64c4052c1

[72gmc]

I’m an alum of the University of Washington, which is paying its former coach 9.9M to leave. I am nowhere near the fan I used to be.

I do get sarcastic joy from the new contracts. Use of the U’s private jet is now written into the contract? Saves it from becoming a scandal later, I guess. I also noted USC’s apparent agreement to buy the Oklahoma homes (plural) still owned by Riley at some large measure above market value. That’s a creative cost of living adjustment.

[Moke]

I think it is crazy town to spend that kind of money. on a coach....but Not many CEOs can put 100,000 butts in seats most every Saturday in the fall. There is so much money and exploitation going on in the NCAA it boggles my mind. People paint rooms in their houses school colors, fly flags, have shirts, ties, hats, coats, slippers, bathrobes and a team bar in their house to root for their school. I have even seen $500k plus busses to party in at tailgates. Winning teams sure make happy donors. At a lot of schools you have to donate to the AD dept in addition to paying for your tickets. Crazy stuff out there, but it sure is a pastime for a lot of folks. I get donor solicitations from college several times a year. I give to the school but not the AD.

[bigbill]

My cousin's kid played for Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech. He only had one good season capped off with a win in the Holiday Bowl. The Arizona Cardinals hired him as a head coach and he's done okay, but I'm not sure how they justified his salary.

[zachateseverything]

Coaches salaries are insane. Boosters at the big programs can throw all kinds of money at whoever they want. The issue though is that raises the raises the expectations at every school in the country. all but about 20 athletic divisions in the US operate at a loss. you can't tell me that it's in the best interest of the University of Akron student body to pay the head football coach $500k-$1M a year.

and don't even get me started on stadium subsidies.

[rwsaunders]

Perhaps I’m oversimplifying the solution, but I’ve often wondered when the masses will call out the NFL and NBA to subsidize what are essentially their farm systems?

[Mabouya]

Granted, there's lot of hypocrisy at play when we have "institutions of higher learning" where highest paid individual is the head football or basketball coach.

However, having issues with their salaries is similar to complaining about how much star professional athletes are payed (yeah, I'm looking at you, Mike Trout) - it's merely a reflection of what's important to society.

Bonus image. I bet this is what Messi's saying: "Can you believe how much they're paying us to do this!"

[gregl]

I do get sarcastic joy from the new contracts. Use of the U’s private jet is now written into the contract? Saves it from becoming a scandal later, I guess.

I chuckled at that perk too. Wealthy donors have loaned private aircraft to college coaches for years. I've flown more than a few well-known coaches on recruiting and personal trips. I always made sure the manifests were very accurate just in case the documentation was needed at a later date...

Greg

[Tom]

"Earning"?

Paid.

[Doug Fattic]

I live just a few miles north of Notre Dame stadium. I'm a casual fan that that watches their games on TV for entertainment but doesn't really care how well they do. Kelly's departure from ND caught everyone by surprise. There is something about giving him obscene amounts of money to leave doesn't seem right on many levels. First of all he leaves the team with a chance to play in a national championship game with less of a chance (they are 11 and 1 and been dominate their last few games). It seems like loyalty to his recruits and other coaches isn't a concern if you are paid enough to leave. Something is wrong here.

Notre Dame was limiting to him because athletes actually have to meet academic standards. I'm betting LSU doesn't care. I'm modest friends with the XC coach and one time he was telling me that one of the best high school runners wanted to go to ND but couldn't get by their academic entry standards. He was bummed about that.