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By Curtis Eichelberger
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- When Jeremy Foley was hired as athletic director in 1992, the University of Florida was emerging from National Collegiate Athletic Association probation, playing in an outdated stadium and seeking its first national title in football or men’s basketball.
Since then, the man who started his career as an intern in the Gainesville school’s ticket office built a program that won two national championships in both football and men’s basketball. The Gators football team will try for its third on Jan. 8 in the Bowl Championship Series title game in Miami against the University of Oklahoma.
The 56-year-old Foley is the highest-paid athletic director among public schools in college football’s top division, according to contracts obtained through open-records requests. His $965,000 in guaranteed salary can grow to more than $1 million after benefits and bonuses. The University of Kansas’s Lew Perkins is second at $900,000, followed by the University of Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez at $750,000.
“The athletic director is more like a CEO of a corporation than a guy who hires coaches,” said University of Florida President Bernard Machen, who will earn $416,000 in base pay this year. “Jeremy oversees everything from the sale of bonds for capital construction to tickets and sponsorships, and he manages more than 500 employees.”
Foley hired Urban Meyer to coach the Gators football team beginning in 2005. The following season, Florida won its second national title. This season the Gators are ranked No. 2 heading into the title game against the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.
Gators Are Favored
Florida is a 3 1/2-point favorite over Oklahoma, according to Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which advises casinos on betting lines.
The Florida athletic director, who didn’t respond to an interview request, has managed $199 million in renovations to sports facilities during his tenure and oversees an $83 million budget. Joe Castiglione, Foley’s counterpart at Oklahoma, makes a base salary of $700,000, fourth in the NCAA.
The contracts were acquired by filing public records requests with each public university in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. In some cases, salaries were obtained from state salary databases. Schools that aren’t required by law to disclose employee contracts, such as the University of Southern California, the University of Notre Dame and University of Miami, aren’t included.
“Athletic directors are no more important than faculty in any discipline, but they are paid proportionally more because salaries at a university reflect the outside marketplace, and American society clearly places a high value on collegiate and professional sports,” said University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway, who announced his retirement last month.
Salary Comparison
Hemenway said that before setting Perkins’s pay, he conducted salary comparisons, reviewed non-salary arrangements at other schools, spoke with the Big 12 Conference commissioner and drew from his own observations and experiences on various NCAA committees. Perkins needed to be paid at or near the top of all athletic directors in the U.S., he said.
“Perkins runs athletics like a business -- focusing on generating revenue while being efficient and keeping costs down,” Hemenway said in an e-mail. “In five years, he has doubled the departmental budget and translated this financial success into concrete improvements.”
Perkins declined to comment through Associate Athletic Director Jim Marchiony.
New Hiring Model
Chuck Neinas, founder of Neinas Sports Services in Boulder, Colorado, and a former Big Eight Conference Commissioner, said the days of hiring the retired football coach to run the athletic department are long gone.
Similar to bankers or lawyers, he said, today’s athletic directors need years of practical experience and contacts, plus skills in budgeting, hiring coaches, sports marketing and increasingly, fundraising.
Neinas helped place athletic directors Perkins, Castiglione and Missouri’s Mike Alden, as well as football coaches such as Alabama’s Nick Saban, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and Texas’s Mack Brown.
“It’s very difficult for someone to come in from the outside with no college experience and be successful,” Neinas said. “There are many passionate constituencies that need to be managed, fiscal concerns, fundraising, academic challenges and you’re never going to satisfy everyone.”
Ohio State University’s Gene Smith manages the biggest program in the nation with 36 teams and a $115.4 million budget.
Biggest Program
Smith, a former Notre Dame defensive end and assistant coach, spent two years in International Business Machines Corp.’s marketing department, then returned to college athletics as an assistant athletic director at Eastern Michigan. He later spent seven years as athletic director at Iowa State and five years in the same role at Arizona State, working on the NCAA’s Management Council, Committee on Infractions, Rules Committee and Executive Committee.
Neinas said schools are also looking to diversify their programs.
With retention and performance bonuses, some athletic directors can increase their income by $200,000 or more. Most also receive country club memberships, cars and spousal travel to athletic events.
----- COMPARISONS OF ATHLETIC DIRECTORS BY CONFERENCE -----
================== SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE ==================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Florida Jeremy Foley 17 19 $83.1M $965,000
LSU Joe Alleva 1 20 $75.8M $550,000
Kentucky Mitch Barnhart 7 22 $67.0M $475,000
Arkansas Jeff Long 1 19 $51.8M $450,000
Georgia Damon Evans 5 21 $76.3M $420,000
Alabama Mal Moore 10 21 $77.0M $400,000
Auburn Jay Jacobs 4 21 $75.2M $355,050
Mississippi Pete Boone 11 16 $38.2M $327,400
Tennessee Mike Hamilton 6 20 $86.5M $314,575
S. Carolina Eric Hyman 4 19 $52.1M $309,065
Miss. State Greg Byrne 1 16 $31.8M $175,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
SEC Average 6 19 $65.0M $431,008
---------------------------------------------------------------
================= ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE =================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Georgia Tech Dan Radakovich 3 17 $56.0M $560,000
Clemson Terry Don Phillips 6 19 $53.2M $418,000
Maryland Deborah Yow 15 27 $61.0M $382,575
Florida State Randy Spetman 1 17 $51.0M $350,000
Virginia Tech Jim Weaver 12 21 $53.5M $345,211
Virginia Craig Littlepage 8 25 $56.2M $320,000
N. Carolina Dick Baddour 12 28 $61.4M $295,000
NC State Lee Fowler 9 23 $39.0M $280,000
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ACC Average 8 22 $53.9M $368,848
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===================== BIG 12 CONFERENCE =====================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Kansas Lew Perkins 6 18 $57.8M $900,000
Oklahoma Joe Castiglione 11 21 $73.6M $700,000
Texas A&M Bill Byrne 6 20 $69.1M $690,000
Texas DeLoss Dodds 27 20 $101.0M $627,109
Iowa State Jamie Pollard 4 18 $41.8M $378,560
Okla. State Mike Holder 4 18 $46.4M $377,396
Texas Tech Gerald Myers 13 17 $46.1M $365,000
Colorado Mike Bohn 4 16 $45.1M $297,709
Kansas State Robert Krause 1 16 $42.0M $294,466
Missouri Mike Alden 11 20 $47.8M $287,375
Nebraska Tom Osborne 2 23 $75.2M $261,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
BIG 12 Average 8 19 $58.7M $470,783
---------------------------------------------------------------
===================== BIG 10 CONFERENCE =====================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wisconsin Barry Alvarez 5 23 $86.6M $750,000
Ohio State Eugene Smith 4 36 $115.4M $648,000
Illinois Ron Guenther 17 17 $52.7M $600,000
Michigan Bill Martin 9 25 $80.2M $380,368
Minnesota Joel Maturi 7 25 $69.0M $345,000
Iowa Gary Barta 3 24 $66.2M $330,524
Purdue Morgan Burke 16 20 $54.8M $322,600
Indiana Rick Greenspan 5 24 $50.9M $300,000
Mich. State Mark Hollis 1 25 $73.5M $295,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
BIG 10 Average 7 24 $72.2M $441,277
---------------------------------------------------------------
===================== PAC-10 CONFERENCE =====================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
UCLA Dan Guerrero 6 24 $64.5M $465,000
Oregon State Bob De Carolis 7 17 $46.0M $385,044
California Sandy Barbour 5 27 $56.0M $384,200
Arizona Jim Livengood 14 19 $42.0M $372,600
Arizona State Lisa Love 3 22 $41.0M $325,305
Wash. State James Sterk 8 14 $30.0M $263,400
---------------------------------------------------------------
PAC-10 Average 7 21 $46.6M $365,925
---------------------------------------------------------------
==================== BIG EAST CONFERENCE ====================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Louisville Tom Jurich 12 23 $50.7M $484,993
South Florida Doug Woolard 5 17 $32.5M $421,950
Rutgers Robert Mulcahy* 11 24 $56.0M $341,250
Connecticut Jeff Hathaway 6 22 $52.8M $335,000
Cincinnati Mike Thomas 3 18 $32.9M $295,801
West Virginia Ed Pastilong 20 17 $48.0M $240,750
---------------------------------------------------------------
BIG EAST Average 10 20 $45.5M $353,291
---------------------------------------------------------------
====================== CONFERENCE USA =======================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Houston Dave Maggard 7 16 $25.2M $415,483
East Carolina Terry Holland 5 19 $24.5M $356,400
UCF Keith Tribble 3 16 $33.1M $325,000
Memphis R.C. Johnson 13 19 $34.0M $307,500
Southern Miss Richard Giannini 10 16 $19.1M $298,000
UAB Brian Mackin 2 16 $21.1M $236,250
UTEP Bob Stull 11 16 $14.6M $223,000
Marshall Bob Marcum 7 16 $19.5M $ 86,372
---------------------------------------------------------------
C-USA Average 7 17 $23.9M $281,001
---------------------------------------------------------------
================== MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE ==================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
N. Illinois Jeff Compher 1 17 $17.9M $274,992
Ohio Jim Schaus 1 16 $18.8M $225,000
Buffalo Warde Manuel 3 20 $20.9M $218,885
Akron Mack Rhoades 3 19 $19.2M $204,718
Miami-Ohio Brad Bates 6 18 $18.7M $190,000
E. Michigan Derrick Gragg 3 21 $15.8M $182,000
Toledo Michael O’Brien 6 16 $19.0M $180,750
Ball State Tom Collins 3 19 $14.3M $179,113
Kent State Laing Kennedy 5 18 $18.7M $175,000
W. Michigan Kathy Beauregard 12 16 $18.2M $164,800
Bowling Green Greg Christopher 3 18 $18.1M $162,045
C. Michigan Dave Heeke 3 16 $19.5M $159,135
---------------------------------------------------------------
MAC Average 4 18 $18.3M $193,037
---------------------------------------------------------------
================= MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE ==================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
New Mexico Paul Krebs 3 21 $26.0M $358,391
Utah Chris Hill 22 18 $26.0M $290,000
UNLV Mike Hamrick 6 17 $26.8M $270,000
Colorado St. Paul Kowalczyk 3 16 $21.5M $259,875
San Diego St. Jeff Schemmel 4 18 $32.0M $207,000
Wyoming Tom Burman 3 17 $22.3M $176,880
---------------------------------------------------------------
MOUNTAIN WEST Average 7 18 $25.8M $260,358
---------------------------------------------------------------
==================== SUN BELT CONFERENCE ====================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Florida Intl. Pete Garcia 3 17 $20.5M $271,688
North Texas Rick Villarreal 8 16 $15.7M $197,200
Florida Atl. Craig Angelos 5 18 $14.5M $157,728
Middle Tenn. Chris Massaro 4 17 $18.4M $153,890
Arkansas St. Dean Lee 7 16 $ 9.1M $144,288
UL Lafayette David Walker 3 16 $11.0M $133,875
UL-Monroe Bobby Staub 5 16 $ 8.4M $109,923
---------------------------------------------------------------
SUN BELT Average 5 17 $13.9M $166,942
---------------------------------------------------------------
================ WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE ================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletic Yrs at No. of Dept. Guaranteed
School Director School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
Boise State Gene Bleymaier 27 19 $26.2M $266,116
Fresno State Thomas Boeh 4 20 $25.3M $262,789
San Jose St. Tom Bowen 4 16 $17.1M $260,892
Nevada Cary Groth 5 18 $23.7M $260,000
Hawaii Jim Donovan 1 19 $29.6M $240,000
New Mexico St. McKinley Boston 4 17 $16.5M $230,000
Idaho Rob Spear 5 12 $14.0M $184,998
Utah State Scott Barnes 1 16 $13.4M $216,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
WAC Average 6 18 $20.7M $240,099
---------------------------------------------------------------
==================== CONFERENCE AVERAGES ====================
---------------------------------------------------------------
Yrs ADs No. of Dept. Guaranteed
Conference at School Teams Budget Base
---------------------------------------------------------------
BIG 12 8 19 $58.7M $470,783
BIG 10 7 24 $72.2M $441,277
SEC 6 19 $64.9M $431,008
ACC 8 22 $53.9M $368,848
PAC-10 7 21 $46.6M $365,925
BIG EAST 10 20 $45.5M $353,291
USA 7 17 $23.9M $281,001
MOUNTAIN WEST 7 18 $25.8M $260,358
WAC 6 18 $20.7M $240,099
MAC 4 18 $18.3M $193,037
SUN BELT 5 17 $13.9M $166,942
---------------------------------------------------------------
Average 7 19 $40.4M $324,779
---------------------------------------------------------------
*Robert Mulcahy left Rutgers this month.
NOTE: Kent State, Western Michigan, New Mexico, University
of Alabama at Birmingham and Nebraska haven’t required their
athletic directors to sign contracts and Mississippi state law
doesn’t require schools to make anything other than the salary
available. University of Central Florida provided only an
executive summary.
At Indiana, Fred Glass replaced Rick Greenspan on Jan.
2 and will earn $410,000 in base salary.
Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny donates all but
$25,884 of his salary back to the school.
Louisiana Tech’s Derek Dooley doubles as football coach and
is paid $50,000 for his athletic director duties.
Washington Athletic Director Scott Woodward’s contract
hasn’t been completed.
Troy University didn’t respond to an open-records request.
To contact the reporter on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in Washington at ceichelberge@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: January 6, 2009 00:01 EST
