Coaching Salary Dollars per Win

H

Hawk1960

Well-Known Member
Now that the regular season is over I thought it would be interesting to look at the B1G head coaching salaries and 2018 win totals and see who is getting the most "bang for the buck". Salary information is taken from the USA Today's Coaching Salary database and is school payed base salaries as not all bonuses have been determined yet. That source is linked below.

Coach (school) | Salary | 2018 Wins | Dollars Per Win
B1G West:
Fitz (NW) $3.6M 8 wins $450,000 per win (best value in West this year)
Chryst (WI) $3.8M 7 wins $530,000 per win
Ferentz (IA) $4.7M 8 wins $580,000 per win
Fleck (MN) $3.55M 6 wins $590,000 per win
Brohm (PU) $6.0M 6 wins $1,000,000 per win (New salary as of 11/29/2018)
Frost (NU) $5.0M 4 wins $1,250,000 per win
Smith (IL) $5.0M 4 wins $1,250,000 per win

B1G East:
Allen (IU) $1.8M 5 wins $360,000 per win (best value in East this year)
Durkin (MD) $2.5M 5 wins $500,000 per win (fired before season started)
Franklin (PSU) $4.8M 9 wins $530,000 per win
Dantonio (MSU) $4.3M 7 wins $610,000 per win
Meyer (OSU) $7.6M 11 wins $690,000 per win
Harbaugh (MI) $7.5M 10 wins $750,000 per win
Ash (RUT) $2.2M 1 win $2,200,000 per win

Observations:

In the West, you could make a good case that Fitz and Chryst are offering decent value for their respective schools most years. Fitz wins it this year by a wide margin. Ferentz, Fleck and Brohm are also not far behind. Lovie Smith is a terrible value for IL. Year 1 for Frost, but he's expensive and these figures do not include the money Nebby is paying their past two coaches. Feel free to use this for any Nebby fans who think we pay too much for Ferentz.

In the East, there is a huge variation from top to bottom in salaries. Best value this year might be Durkin's replacement at MD and Allen is probably under paid at Indiana. Meyer and Harbaugh's salaries are 50% above the next closest salary in the league.

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/
 
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Hawk1960 said:
Now that the regular season is over I thought it would be interesting to look at the B1G head coaching salaries and 2018 win totals and see who is getting the most "bang for the buck". Salary information is taken from the USA Today's Coaching Salary database and is school payed base salary's as not all bonuses have been determined yet. That source is linked below.

Coach (school) Salary 2018 Wins Dollars Per Win
B1G West:
Fitz (NW) $3.6 M 8 wins $450,000 per win (best value in West)
Chryst (WI) $3.8 M 7 wins $530,000 per win
Ferentz (IA) $4.7 M 8 wins $580,000 per win
Fleck (MN) $3.55 M 6 wins $590,000 per win
Brohm (PU) $3.8M 6 wins $630,000 per win
Frost (NU) $5.0M 4 wins $1,250,000 per win
Smith (IL) $5.0M 4 wins $1,250,000 per win

B1G East:
Allen (IU) $1.8M 5 wins $360,000 per win (best value in East)
Durkin (MD) $2.5M 5 wins $500,000 per win (fired before season started)
Franklin (PSU) $4.8M 9 wins $530,000 per win
Dantonio (MSU) $4.3M 7 wins $610,000 per win
Meyer (OSU) $7.6M 11 wins $690,000 per win
Harbaugh (MI) $7.5M 10 wins $750,000 per win
Ash (RUT) $2.2M 1 wins $2,200,000 per win

Observations:

In the West, you could make a good case that Fitz and Chryst are offering decent value for their respective schools most years. Fitz wins it this year by a wide margin. Ferentz, Fleck and Brohm are also not far behind. Lovie Smith is a terrible value for IL. Year 1 for Frost, but he's expensive and these figures do not include the money Nebby is paying their past two coaches. Feel free to use this for any Nebby fans who think we pay too much for Ferentz.

In the East, there is a huge variation from top to bottom in salaries. Best value this year might be Durkin's replacement at MD and Allen is probably under paid at Indiana. Meyer and Harbaugh's salaries are 50% above the next closest salary in the league.

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/
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Interesting stuff...thanks.
 
This a good breakdown. But you’re not including bonuses. Which if the AD hands out a shit tier contract with easy to obtain bonuses, can inflate pay substantially.
 
Mrke1 said:
This a good breakdown. But you’re not including bonuses. Which if the AD hands out a shit tier contract with easy to obtain bonuses, can inflate pay substantially.
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Yep. Last year's bonuses are shown in the link but 2018 bonuses have not been calculated yet as many are dependent on conference championships and bowl wins. Just about every coach in the top 70 has the potential for a 7 figure bonus.
 
Hawk1960 said:
Yep. Last year's bonuses are shown in the link but 2018 bonuses have not been calculated yet as many are dependent on conference championships and bowl wins.
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We already know Kirk earned an extra 600k this year. So he’s already below Brohm on the B1G East list at $662,500 per win.
 
Mrke1 said:
We already know Kirk earned an extra 600k this year. So he’s already below Brohm on the B1G East list at $662,500 per win.
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That might depend on what Brohm gets for a bonus this year. He got $180K last year. Might depend on how they do in their bowl. Don't get me wrong, he's a great coach and who knows, Purdue may have to give him a bump or extend his contract if they don't want Louisville poaching him with their opening.
 
Not really looking at or caring who makes what, the numbers and amount are just staggering, when you really stop and think about it. Really, do people really need to make that much? Not just with college coaches, but also NBA or MLB players. Seriously, when is the bubble going to burst and they are going to out price the fan base?
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Not really looking at or caring who makes what, the numbers and amount are just staggering, when you really stop and think about it. Really, do people really need to make that much? Not just with college coaches, but also NBA or MLB players. Seriously, when is the bubble going to burst and they are going to out price the fan base?
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It is amazing the salaries head coaches (both in college and NFL) get and same for professional athletes, even with salary caps in many leagues now. The Chicago Bears started their backup QB, Chase Daniels, last week. He has been in the NFL for 10 years now and only started 3 games and had 480 career passing yards going in to the game. He has made $32 million dollars over 10 years for holding that clipboard. Pretty good gig.
 
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Hawk1960 said:
It is amazing the salaries head coaches (both in college and NFL) get and same for professional athletes, even with salary caps in many leagues now. The Chicago Bears started their backup QB, Chase Daniels last week. He has been in the NFL for 10 years now and only started 3 games and had 480 career passing yards going in to the game. He has made $35 million dollars over 10 years for holding that clipboard. Pretty good gig.
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I am really good at holding clip boards...
 
The money doesn't mean dick really.

First of all it isn't like there's some sort of intrinsic "return" that you're supposed to get from a coach. The BOR is basically placing a bet of X amount of dollars on a coach when they hire him based on market price at the time (other salaries/contracts around the league). Nothing more, nothing less. It's a sunk cost the moment it's signed unless you're bringing a team from 1-11 to 11-1 and you win consistently after that. Those sorts of things are game changers for programs and schools and will add value to a program. The rest of the contracts out there...nope.

Second, I'd argue (economically) there there's zero correlation between dollars paid per win and actual value to a school per win. Urban Meyer getting paid $690K per win and Kirk Ferentz at $580K seem sort of close compared to a lot of the others, but Urban Meyer losing that Purdue game, or winning against Michigan has a hell of a lot more value up or down than Kirk Ferentz sticking it to Illinois or getting beat by NW. There's just no relation that you can measure (that actually means something). Going by this list it looks like Tom Allen is the second coming of Christ, but it really just means that he doesn't get paid jack shit compared to his colleagues. No more/No less. Kirk could make $1M or $1K per win and the same number of fans are going to fill Kinnick 80% full every year whether we go 3-9 or 9-3. This is one of those stats that looks telling but in reality it's like saying that the most robberies per day in Australia happen when Poughkeepsie, NY gets it's highest precip total for the year. It's all derp.

I am one who could care less what a football coach gets paid. The program is self-supporting, and the money paid out has zero effect on anything public. None. For all intents and purposes Hawkeye football is a private business and who are we to say how much they get paid? We're the idiots who have a choice to buy hoodies and tickets and still keep doing it.
 
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MelroseHawkins said:
Not really looking at or caring who makes what, the numbers and amount are just staggering, when you really stop and think about it. Really, do people really need to make that much? Not just with college coaches, but also NBA or MLB players. Seriously, when is the bubble going to burst and they are going to out price the fan base?
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Never. With the huge TV contracts the Alabamas and Ohio States of the world can afford to pay Saban and Meyer double or triple what they're making. Even with the puny little programs like Iowa's people are still going to buy the clothing and pay for season tickets and the donors will keep on donating no matter how much they bitch about Ferentz or his successor. It's all talk when you hear someone say they're getting rid of their season tickets because 1) they're probably full of shit, and 2) even if they do there's plenty of young twenty somethings out there with a couple grand to blow who'll take their places (and sell most on StubHub anyway). If you would have told people in the 80s that it would cost a family of four $400-500 to go to a game after tickets, meals, gas, etc., even after inflation people would've said "There's no way I'd do it." But there are 60-some thousand people who do just that every weekend and there still will be when it costs a family of four $1,000.

The salaries are staggering for sure, but take a look at the incomes if you want staggering. Athletics revenue was over $115M last year, almost all of that related to football. Kirk's salary was only 4% of that. They have a long ways to go before fans start getting priced out.
 
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Fryowa said:
Never. With the huge TV contracts the Alabamas and Ohio States of the world can afford to pay Saban and Meyer double or triple what they're making. Even with the puny little programs like Iowa's people are still going to buy the clothing and pay for season tickets and the donors will keep on donating no matter how much they bitch about Ferentz or his predecessor. It's all talk when you hear someone say they're getting rid of their season tickets because 1) they're probably full of shit, and 2) even if they do there's plenty of young twenty somethings out there with a couple grand to blow who'll take their places (and sell most on StubHub anyway). If you would have told people in the 80s that it would cost a family of four $400-500 to go to a game after tickets, meals, gas, etc., even after inflation people would've said "There's no way I'd do it." But there are 60-some thousand people who do just that every weekend and there still will be when it costs a family of four $1,000.

The salaries are staggering for sure, but take a look at the incomes if you want staggering. Athletics revenue was over $115M last year, almost all of that related to football. Kirk's salary was only 4% of that. They have a long ways to go before fans start getting priced out.
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.....and while at work in my university mail today I get hit up by the university Center For Advancement to contribute and set up a monthly contribution. The very first thing that came to my mind was Ferentz getting a $500,000.00 bonus for winning his 8th game this year. I yelled BULLSHIT in my head and in the paper basket went the donation inquiry.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
.....and while at work in my university mail today I get hit up by the university Center For Advancement to contribute and set up a monthly contribution. The very first thing that came to my mind was Ferentz getting a $500,000.00 bonus for winning his 8th game this year. I yelled BULLSHIT in my head and in the paper basket went the donation inquiry.
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Yeah but the Athletic Department is wholly self-funded. They don't raid the general fund and the rest of the university doesn't raid the AD funds. So its pretty much apples/oranges. Iowa football is basically its own private business when it comes to finances.

You could easily argue that the athletic department should draw revenue to help fund the rest of the university, and I wouldn't argue with the logic one bit, but that's not how it works. There's just too much money in football right now.

KF's incentive bonuses and his buyout structures are absurd though. No doubt about it.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
.....and while at work in my university mail today I get hit up by the university Center For Advancement to contribute and set up a monthly contribution. The very first thing that came to my mind was Ferentz getting a $500,000.00 bonus for winning his 8th game this year. I yelled BULLSHIT in my head and in the paper basket went the donation inquiry.
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I get it, but Ferentz’s check comes out of the pile that the football program brings in. No different than Home Depot paying their management people out of the money we pay for miter saws and Sheetrock.
 
Yay, another meaningless discussion about coaches salary. None of this makes any difference to what happens on the football field and KF's salary is not coming out of our pockets.
 
Fryowa said:
I get it, but Ferentz’s check comes out of the pile that the football program brings in. No different than Home Depot paying their management people out of the money we pay for miter saws and Sheetrock.
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Screw that. They could make that happen. Our research department comes out of grant $$ and we are 90% funded by the federal gov (NIH) but do we get all the funding from the gov? Hell no, we have to pool it with other departments and have it distributed. Our PI gets credited for bringing in so many millions of $$$$, but we don't get it all.
 
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