aurorasooner
9/30/2007, 05:28 AM
Good article from the Austin American Statesman. It's going to go over real well with the horn fans after that 41-21 shellacking they took yesterday in front of the home fans.
Big payday for calling the plays
By Eric Dexheimer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, September 30, 2007
The biggest single item in the University of Texas athletics department budget is salaries, wages and benefits, which, at $32 million (plus another $900,000 set aside for anticipated incentive payments) represent almost a third of total expenses. Collectively, athletics department pay has risen 50 percent since 2000-01.
Name coaches with multimillion-dollar deals get all the attention. But the big paydays have trickled down to top assistant coaches and administrators, as well.http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/09/30/0930salaries.html
MORE ON THIS STORY
* Part 1: The $100 million Longhorn economy
* UT athletics officials wary of sharing profits
* Inspiring players, fans is a multimillion dollar endeavor -- See the link
More than $1 million Women's basketball coach Jody Conradt, right, was earning $550,000 when she retired this year. UT replaced her with Gail Goestenkors from Duke — for $1 million, plus incentives worth $270,000.
The money is spread across a sprawling department — about 260 full-time employees and dozens of part-timers, including former Longhorn running back Earl Campbell, who is paid $50,000 as a half-time special assistant. (Former coach Darrell Royal also draws a $50,000 part-time salary as an assistant to the university president.)
But University of Texas coaches also collectively make higher salaries than any school in the country except Ohio State (which employs nearly twice as many coaches), according to a database of NCAA financial reports. Texas A&M ranked fourth in the country.
An outsized portion of the money goes to basketball and football, where salaries have skyrocketed. Mack Brown earns $2.8 million a year, four times his starting pay in 1997. When A&M basketball coach Billy Gillispie left for a $2.3 million job at Kentucky this spring, he walked away from $1.8 million — nearly three times his starting pay just three years earlier.
University of Texas-Austin faculty, by comparison, have averaged 4.34 percent raises over the past five years.
Big salaries don't always equal big wins. While Brown has rejuvenated the Longhorns' footbal program, Aggie football coach Dennis Franchione, who earns $2 million a year, has barely won more games than he's lost while at A&M.
A coach rarely pays a penalty when a team performs poorly. Franchione got a $300,000 raise in 2005, after a 7-5 season that ended with a Cotton Bowl berth. But he didn't lose any of that money the following year, when the Aggies went 5-6, 3-5 in the Big 12.
Coaches can be fired, of course. But sacking them often is expensive. According to Franchione's contract, which recently was extended through 2012, Texas A&M would have to pay him $142,000 — a month — until he finds a new job.
Adding up the extras
Athletics directors and supporters say successful coaches more than pay for themselves by attracting fans, donors and sponsors. UT football will bring in $63 million this year.
That means Brown's compensation equals about 5 percent of the Longhorn football program's total revenue. At that rate, computer magnate Michael Dell would earn about $2.8 billion a year. (His actual pay was 5 percent of that last year, according to Forbes.)
Approximately one out of every six dollars the UT men's basketball team brings in goes toward Rick Barnes's $2 million paycheck. If former UT President Larry Faulker had the same deal, he'd have averaged $47 million a year as his share of the $2 billion in development funds the university raised during his seven-year tenure. (He was paid about $520,000 a year.)
Most big-name coaches get a couple of cars and a generous expense allowance. Barnes received $7,500 for a speech at a Catholic school last year. Brown collects $120,000 annually to act as chairman of the board of the University of Texas Golf Club (where insiders say he mostly schmoozes supporters).
Incentives — official and otherwise — add more money. Brown collected more than $200,000 for winning the national championship in 2005.
Less well-known is that a group of influential alumni known as Mack Brown's Kitchen Cabinet quietly handed the football coaching staff an additional $100,000 to split after the Rose Bowl win, and gave the department $200,000 more to upgrade player facilities. Brown's newest contract contains $950,000 in possible performance incentives; Barnes's carrots total $800,000.
Salary "supplements" also boost paydays. Typically between 4 and 9 percent of their regular salary, coaches collect them for extra labor when their team reaches the post-season. For working the Rose Bowl two years ago, UT's football coaches split $388,000.
Annuities and retention bonuses are an increasingly popular perk. Brown received a $1.6 million annuity in 2004. He'll collect another $1 million if he's still on the job in 2009, and $2 million more the following year. (A provision buried in the coach's newest contract also promises him future employment in a "significant position" when he stops coaching.) UT regents recently gave Barnes two $1 million annuities, payable if he stays in the job long enough.
The bonuses are big because coaches often get better money by job-hopping, and schools typically pay their replacements more. After 31 years as the Longhorn women's basketball coach, Jody Conradt was earning $550,000 when she retired this past year. The school replaced her with Gail Goestenkors from Duke — for $1 million, plus incentives worth $270,000.
Top coaches cost even more indirectly as administrators entice them to stay. UT recently bought a $400,000 state-of-the-art video system to help Brown analyze game and practice films. A&M hoped constructing a new $22 million, 68,000-square-foot basketball practice facility, which Gillispie helped plan and design, would keep the coach happy.
This spring the University of Kentucky lured Gillispie away anyway — where he'll practice in the Wildcats' new 100,000-square-foot, $30 million practice facility.
Trickle-down effect
The lucrative deals are filtering down. This past year, Texas A&M's three new assistant basketball coaches collectively earn $100,000 more than last year's crew. Greg Davis, the Longhorn football team's offensive coordinator, will earn $350,000 in 2007; the team's two defensive coordinators get $300,000 each. In all, Brown's nine assistants make $2 million a year, up 51 percent from 2000.
One of the hottest positions in college sports today is the strength and conditioning coach. Not so long ago a good one would be lucky to make six figures. This year, UT's football strength coach, Jeff Madden, will earn $200,000.
In all, 10 UT coaches earn more than $200,000, including baseball coach Augie Garrido ($610,000) and women's track coach Beverly Kearney ($258,000). The average salary of a full professor at UT-Austin in 2006-07 was $121,200. UT-Austin President William Powers Jr., earns $577,500.
Another beneficiary of salary creep are the administrators who oversee the growing sports departments. In the 10 years he led Texas A&M's sports program, Wallace Groff's salary rose modestly to $208,000 when he retired in 2003. His replacement, Bill Byrne, was hired from Nebraska at more than double that. His raise this year increased his annual pay to $486,000.
As one of only a small handful of universities in the country with separate athletics directors for men's and women's sports, the University of Texas is in its own superstrata of top-paying schools. In 2005, DeLoss Dodds, the men's director, earned $455,000. Raises since then have brought his salary and incentive payments to $700,000 annually, not including a $750,000 annuity he'll be paid in 2011.
Women's athletics director Christine Plonsky, meanwhile, got a 19 percent raise last year that bumped her potential compensation to $340,000. That puts the total UT pays its athletics directors over $1 million for the first time.
Big payday for calling the plays
By Eric Dexheimer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, September 30, 2007
The biggest single item in the University of Texas athletics department budget is salaries, wages and benefits, which, at $32 million (plus another $900,000 set aside for anticipated incentive payments) represent almost a third of total expenses. Collectively, athletics department pay has risen 50 percent since 2000-01.
Name coaches with multimillion-dollar deals get all the attention. But the big paydays have trickled down to top assistant coaches and administrators, as well.http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/09/30/0930salaries.html
* Part 1: The $100 million Longhorn economy
* UT athletics officials wary of sharing profits
* Inspiring players, fans is a multimillion dollar endeavor -- See the link
More than $1 million Women's basketball coach Jody Conradt, right, was earning $550,000 when she retired this year. UT replaced her with Gail Goestenkors from Duke — for $1 million, plus incentives worth $270,000.
The money is spread across a sprawling department — about 260 full-time employees and dozens of part-timers, including former Longhorn running back Earl Campbell, who is paid $50,000 as a half-time special assistant. (Former coach Darrell Royal also draws a $50,000 part-time salary as an assistant to the university president.)
But University of Texas coaches also collectively make higher salaries than any school in the country except Ohio State (which employs nearly twice as many coaches), according to a database of NCAA financial reports. Texas A&M ranked fourth in the country.
An outsized portion of the money goes to basketball and football, where salaries have skyrocketed. Mack Brown earns $2.8 million a year, four times his starting pay in 1997. When A&M basketball coach Billy Gillispie left for a $2.3 million job at Kentucky this spring, he walked away from $1.8 million — nearly three times his starting pay just three years earlier.
University of Texas-Austin faculty, by comparison, have averaged 4.34 percent raises over the past five years.
Big salaries don't always equal big wins. While Brown has rejuvenated the Longhorns' footbal program, Aggie football coach Dennis Franchione, who earns $2 million a year, has barely won more games than he's lost while at A&M.
A coach rarely pays a penalty when a team performs poorly. Franchione got a $300,000 raise in 2005, after a 7-5 season that ended with a Cotton Bowl berth. But he didn't lose any of that money the following year, when the Aggies went 5-6, 3-5 in the Big 12.
Coaches can be fired, of course. But sacking them often is expensive. According to Franchione's contract, which recently was extended through 2012, Texas A&M would have to pay him $142,000 — a month — until he finds a new job.
Adding up the extras
Athletics directors and supporters say successful coaches more than pay for themselves by attracting fans, donors and sponsors. UT football will bring in $63 million this year.
That means Brown's compensation equals about 5 percent of the Longhorn football program's total revenue. At that rate, computer magnate Michael Dell would earn about $2.8 billion a year. (His actual pay was 5 percent of that last year, according to Forbes.)
Approximately one out of every six dollars the UT men's basketball team brings in goes toward Rick Barnes's $2 million paycheck. If former UT President Larry Faulker had the same deal, he'd have averaged $47 million a year as his share of the $2 billion in development funds the university raised during his seven-year tenure. (He was paid about $520,000 a year.)
Most big-name coaches get a couple of cars and a generous expense allowance. Barnes received $7,500 for a speech at a Catholic school last year. Brown collects $120,000 annually to act as chairman of the board of the University of Texas Golf Club (where insiders say he mostly schmoozes supporters).
Incentives — official and otherwise — add more money. Brown collected more than $200,000 for winning the national championship in 2005.
Less well-known is that a group of influential alumni known as Mack Brown's Kitchen Cabinet quietly handed the football coaching staff an additional $100,000 to split after the Rose Bowl win, and gave the department $200,000 more to upgrade player facilities. Brown's newest contract contains $950,000 in possible performance incentives; Barnes's carrots total $800,000.
Salary "supplements" also boost paydays. Typically between 4 and 9 percent of their regular salary, coaches collect them for extra labor when their team reaches the post-season. For working the Rose Bowl two years ago, UT's football coaches split $388,000.
Annuities and retention bonuses are an increasingly popular perk. Brown received a $1.6 million annuity in 2004. He'll collect another $1 million if he's still on the job in 2009, and $2 million more the following year. (A provision buried in the coach's newest contract also promises him future employment in a "significant position" when he stops coaching.) UT regents recently gave Barnes two $1 million annuities, payable if he stays in the job long enough.
The bonuses are big because coaches often get better money by job-hopping, and schools typically pay their replacements more. After 31 years as the Longhorn women's basketball coach, Jody Conradt was earning $550,000 when she retired this past year. The school replaced her with Gail Goestenkors from Duke — for $1 million, plus incentives worth $270,000.
Top coaches cost even more indirectly as administrators entice them to stay. UT recently bought a $400,000 state-of-the-art video system to help Brown analyze game and practice films. A&M hoped constructing a new $22 million, 68,000-square-foot basketball practice facility, which Gillispie helped plan and design, would keep the coach happy.
This spring the University of Kentucky lured Gillispie away anyway — where he'll practice in the Wildcats' new 100,000-square-foot, $30 million practice facility.
Trickle-down effect
The lucrative deals are filtering down. This past year, Texas A&M's three new assistant basketball coaches collectively earn $100,000 more than last year's crew. Greg Davis, the Longhorn football team's offensive coordinator, will earn $350,000 in 2007; the team's two defensive coordinators get $300,000 each. In all, Brown's nine assistants make $2 million a year, up 51 percent from 2000.
One of the hottest positions in college sports today is the strength and conditioning coach. Not so long ago a good one would be lucky to make six figures. This year, UT's football strength coach, Jeff Madden, will earn $200,000.
In all, 10 UT coaches earn more than $200,000, including baseball coach Augie Garrido ($610,000) and women's track coach Beverly Kearney ($258,000). The average salary of a full professor at UT-Austin in 2006-07 was $121,200. UT-Austin President William Powers Jr., earns $577,500.
Another beneficiary of salary creep are the administrators who oversee the growing sports departments. In the 10 years he led Texas A&M's sports program, Wallace Groff's salary rose modestly to $208,000 when he retired in 2003. His replacement, Bill Byrne, was hired from Nebraska at more than double that. His raise this year increased his annual pay to $486,000.
As one of only a small handful of universities in the country with separate athletics directors for men's and women's sports, the University of Texas is in its own superstrata of top-paying schools. In 2005, DeLoss Dodds, the men's director, earned $455,000. Raises since then have brought his salary and incentive payments to $700,000 annually, not including a $750,000 annuity he'll be paid in 2011.
Women's athletics director Christine Plonsky, meanwhile, got a 19 percent raise last year that bumped her potential compensation to $340,000. That puts the total UT pays its athletics directors over $1 million for the first time.