In Down Economy, Some Salaries Up

Landing Big Name Can Be Worth a Lot

Fewer men's college basketball programs have changed coaches this offseason, a decrease attributed by some to the faltering economy, but many of those that did still paid top dollar to make their new hires.

Just 25 programs have hired a new coach or are in the process of doing so, with more changes likely as schools make decisions on the future of their programs. At this time a year ago, there were 41 coaching changes, and the number has reached at least 40 in each of the past 15 seasons. Jim Haney, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said he has come to expect about 50 coaching changes each season, and views the decreased number as a byproduct of the economy.

But the economy did not stop programs with high-profile openings from offering large compensation packages. Kentucky lured former Memphis coach John Calipari with an eight-year, $31.65 million package, making him the nation's highest-paid college basketball coach. Arizona will pay Sean Miller, formerly of Xavier, $2 million per year. Alabama awarded former Virginia Commonwealth coach Anthony Grant $1.8 million annually, and Virginia will pay Tony Bennett $1.7 million per year after he left Washington State for the Cavaliers.

"It surprises me from the standpoint that we are in an economic downturn, I didn't know how that would play out," Haney said. "Having said that, I think where we think the balance is is that jobs that likely would have opened this year but didn't open because the institution, in assessing the money, didn't feel like they could pay off a coach for years of services, that sort of the buyout, and then pay a new coach. So the economy had an impact. If you focus solely on the big jobs, you can certainly draw the conclusion it didn't, but I think it actually did."

During Calipari's introductory news conference at Kentucky, Wildcats Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart emphasized that Calipari's salary would not be funded by money from the state or university. Similar salary structures are in place at Virginia, Arizona and Alabama.

Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood and Kentucky Deputy Director of Athletics Rob Mullens both identified how important their hires were to the overall financial state of the athletic departments, saying that the revenue generated by their men's basketball programs helps support other sports.

"We needed to be aware of the economy, but we couldn't go cheap," said Livengood, who added that the athletic department might have to cut five or six of its 18 intercollegiate sports if it lost the revenue generated from men's basketball and football. "It's not that if you don't pay X dollars, you won't get a coach, but we had to be able to sustain the level of revenue production."

Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said he did extensive research to understand the market factors driving salaries and compensation packages. With that information, he established a salary range Virginia could offer for a prospective candidate to consider the Virginia vacancy, which was created on March 16 when Dave Leitao resigned after four seasons.

"When you get into that marketplace, sometimes people just want to focus on the expense side of things," Mullens said. "But there's a revenue piece to it, too. And if you hire the right coach, it could have a significant impact on the revenue side of it as well."

Mullens also said Kentucky was aided by the Southeastern Conference's television deal with ESPN and CBS and the Wildcats' multimedia and apparel deals. Particularly because of the additional revenue generated by the SEC's television contract, Mullins said Kentucky was actually better positioned to pay for a new coach than in 2007, when it hired Billy Gillispie.

"Well, there's obviously market dimension to it, because that's what the market paid," NCAA President Myles Brand said earlier this month when asked about Calipari's contract. "I think, however, you have to ask some very hard questions: whether this is really in tune with the academic values, whether we've reached a point already that these high salary and packages for coaches has really extended beyond what's expected within the academic community."

Livengood admitted that because many major donors have money tied to the erratic stock market, there "probably wouldn't be a worse time to pick and select a coach" than this season. But with the level of scrutiny and responsibility of a coach at a major program, Livengood understood he could not afford to hire a less-heralded coach who needed "on-the-job training."

Haney was quick to point out that the jobs that drew the highest salaries were high-profile openings in the power conferences, where schools generally draw from bigger revenue streams and benefit from greater fan interest. Coaches who were likely to increase revenue and nurture interest continued to draw high salaries this offseason, even though the number of new coaches will likely be lower next season.

"Coaches' salaries, for the most part, don't make sense," Livengood said. "And I'm not sure they ever have. I didn't create it. But I live in the environment."