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Football Coaches Salaries Loaded with Incentives for Athletic Success

USA Today recently published an article detailing the significant increase in the amount of football coaching salaries, including assistant coaches, from bonuses and other incentives.  The paper investigated salaries at 89 institutions, including the two institutions whose football teams will play in the Bowl Championship Series title game: the University or Oregon and Auburn University. 

Nearly Half of FBS Coaches Earn More than $1 Million Annually

USA Today published its annual football coaches’ salary report on December 8.  It includes discussion about Fresno State’s Pat Hill, who accepted a reduction in guaranteed pay from $952,000 to $650,000 as a result of the institution’s overall budget woes. The headline points out that Hill’s situation is “a rarity.” The report includes five articles and a

Southeastern Conference Surpasses $1 Billion in Athletics Revenue

Revenues from the members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) totaled more than $1 billion in 2009-10, making the college athletic conference the first to cross the $1 billion mark, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle considered data from the US Department of Education to total the revenue of the athletic departments at

AGB Board of Directors Endorses Knight Commission Report

The Board of Directors of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) voted at its board meeting November 12 to endorse the recent report issued by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of College Sports. The report advocates strengthening intercollegiate athletics in three ways,

Using Student Fees to Pay for College Sports

Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, responded to an inquiry from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the use of student fees to pay for college sports. Her response was published on September 30. Perko stated: “The commission’s fundamental position is there needs to be transparency with institutional fees going to

How Student Fees Boost College Sports amid Rising Budgets

USA Today published an article on September 22 in which it investigated the extent that student fees were being used to help fund the expenses in college athletics. As reported, many institutions do not itemize how student fees are used. Through its own analysis, USA Today found the amounts going to athletics are soaring, and

College Sports Spending out of Whack

This opinion by Knight Commission co-chairs William E. “Brit” Kirwan and R. Gerald Turner was published in the September 17, 2010 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The college sports offseason was filled with news of record-breaking television revenues, lucrative multibillion-dollar television contracts and a reshuffling of athletic conference affiliations designed, in part, to maximize television

Concerned About Rising Tuition? Look at the Coaches’ Salaries

An editorial in the Boston Globe focused on the increasing costs of college athletics, particularly how coaching salaries for non-revenue sports are beginning to surpass the salaries of university presidents and full tenured professors. The editorial considered the findings in the recent Knight Commission report, Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of College

NCAA Report Shows Institutional Support of Athletics Continues to Rise

Inside Higher Ed reported that the nation’s largest college athletics programs are relying more than ever on institutional support to balance their budgets, according to the NCAA’s annual review of college athletics revenue and expenses. According to the report, only 14 programs from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, formerly Division I-A) generated more revenues than

NCAA Releases Academic Progress Rate Database for Coaches

The NCAA announced it has released a database on single-year Academic Progress Rates (APR) for Division I head coaches in six sports, including football and basketball. The database was designed to strengthen the accountability of coaches for the academic performance of their student-athletes. The Head Coach APR Portfolio this year includes baseball, football, men’s and