Performance Pay?

Mike Garrett, athletic director at the University of Southern California, took home more than $1-million in compensation in the 2008-9 fiscal year, according to tax records obtained by The Chronicle.

It’s a handsome sum for any AD, let alone one whose football and men’s basketball programs were in the NCAA’s cross hairs for four years: This month, after a lengthy investigation, the association slapped the university with scholarship reductions and a postseason ban on competition in both sports. It also faulted the university for a “lack of institutional control” over the athletics department. (The university has since appealed some of the penalties, which it said were too severe.)

Mr. Garrett, who has been the Trojans’ athletic director since 1993, wasn’t the only member of the department who lived well that year. The records show that three former football and basketball coaches, all of whom have since left the university, also brought home compensation north of a million dollars: Pete Carroll, the football coach, made $4.1-million; Tim Floyd, the basketball coach, made $1.6-million; and Steve Sarkisian, the assistant head football coach, made nearly $1.2-million.

In Mr. Garrett’s case, the $1,096,604 in compensation in 2009 included, the records show, a base salary of $469,248, bonus and incentive compensation of $425,000, $23,000 in deferred compensation, $43,461 in nontaxable benefits, and $135,895 in “other reportable compensation.”