As members of Congress continue to scrutinize the large compensation packages awarded to top university employees, USA Today on Thursday released the findings from a three-month investigation of college football coaches’ salaries. The results, as the newspaper says, are dizzying.
According to a database accompanying the report, at least 42 of the 119 NCAA Division I-A football coaches earn $1-million or more a year, up from five in 1999, and many of the game’s highest-profile coaches earn far more. Jim Tressel, coach of top-ranked Ohio State University, and Mack Brown, who won the national championship last year for the University of Texas at Austin, are among the nine coaches making more than $2-million.
Coaches receive big perks, too, including cars, country-club memberships, and free tickets for other varsity sporting events. About 10 percent of coaches also get a cut of ticket revenue; Mike Bellotti, the head coach at the University of Oregon, earned $631,000 last season under such a provision.
Others receive hefty bonuses if certain percentages of their athletes graduate. Mr. Brown gets $20,000 if 50 percent to 54 percent of his players graduate, the newspaper reported. If three-fourths of his players earn degrees, he earns $100,000.
Feeding the salary spiral, the report says, is a “tidal wave” of money from lucrative television and apparel contracts. Athletics directors and presidents defend the spending spree, saying that market forces dictate the increases.
