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From The New York Times
Assistant Coaches Join the Millionaire’s Club
By ROBERT STRAUSSFEB. 12, 2016
Photo
The huge growth in college football assistant coaches’ salaries has been attributed to Nick Saban, head coach at the University of Alabama since 2007.
Bill Belichick is said to be the highest-paid coach in professional sports, with a salary estimated by Forbes at more than $7.5 million a year. To many, the pay is justified, given his four Super Bowl wins for the New England Patriots.
But back when he got started as an assistant coach for the Baltimore Colts, Belichick made a measly $25 a week — just about the going rate.
“Assistant coaches weren’t even looked upon as full-time employees,” said Ray Didinger, a Pro Football Hall of Fame writer and a broadcaster for Comcast’s SportsNet Philadelphia. “They worked in the season, and when the season was over, they went back home and were substitute teachers or assistant salesmen or beer distributors.”
Things are far different today. Take Kenny Payne. He is making $500,000 a year, including bonuses, as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. That is about the same he made as a player in the high-paying National Basketball Association in 1993, the last of his four seasons as a small forward for the Philadelphia 76ers, a year in which he averaged 6.5 points per game.
But even Payne’s salary is modest compared with what some major-college football assistant coaches are paid. According to USA Today, which does an annual survey of collegiate assistant coach salaries, nine assistants at N.C.A.A. Division I football programs made more than $1 million last year, topped by Will Muschamp, the Auburn defensive coordinator, who made $1.6 million and has since taken the head coaching job at the University of South Carolina. Two assistants at Louisiana State University, Cam Cameron, offensive coordinator, and Kevin Steele, defensive coordinator, made $1.5 million and $1 million, respectively. (Steele has now taken Muschamp’s job at Auburn.)
The emergence of such princely salaries for non-head coaches at the pro and collegiate levels coincides with the vast sums flowing to sports in recent years. The N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, for example, has taken in $740 million a year in TV revenue since 2011, up from $500 million a year from 2001-10, and the other major sports have seen similar rises.
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Gilbert M. Gaul, author of “Billion-Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football,” links inflation in college football assistant coaches’ salaries to Nick Saban’s arrival as head coach at the University of Alabama in 2007, after coaching the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins. Alabama last month won Saban his fourth national championship as head coach of the Crimson Tide.
Photo
Kenny Payne made $500,000 last year as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. Credit Joe Robbins/Getty Images
“He told Alabama, ‘If you want me to come, you have to invest,’” said Mr. Gaul, who added that Alabama’s football budget grew from $16 million in 2006 to its current $45 million.
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“A part of that was that he wanted to pay assistant coaches so they would come to Alabama,” Mr. Gaul said. “He was used to a pro system, with intense, specialized assistant coaches.”
According to USA Today, Alabama paid its 10 assistant coaches — the most allowed by the N.C.A.A. in Division I — a total of $5.2 million last year.
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For his book, Mr. Gaul tried to compare men’s football and basketball coaching salaries with women’s collegiate sports budgets. “A good women’s rowing program may cost $1.2 million total — coaches, facilities, travel, whatever,” Mr. Gaul said. So that entire program would cost less than a year’s pay of any of seven assistant football coaches in the millionaires’ club. Assistant coaches in sports like softball or even men’s cross-country might make $30,000 or $40,000 a year.
The lucrative assistant coaching market helps explain why Steve Kauffman of Kauffman Sports Management Group in Malibu, Calif., who was Payne’s agent as a player, has shifted his agency’s specialization to coaches and front-office personnel. But another factor in the agency’s shift, and in coach salary inflation, is, ironically, the player salary cap in the N.B.A.
Photo
As the defensive coordinator for Auburn University’s football team, Will Muschamp earned $1.6 million last year. Credit Michael Chang/Getty Images
N.B.A. teams must limit what they pay players, but there is no cap for everything else. Thus, teams can pay assistant coaches as much as they want, and have as many as they want. Mr. Kauffman pointed to the Charlotte Hornets, where his clients are the head coach, Steve Clifford, and three of the Hornets’ six assistant coaches, including the Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing. In another era, the bench would not be the place for such a star, but with salaries averaging about $800,000 for top assistants, it’s a good place to be.
“It might seem like a lot to have six or seven assistants for a team of 12 guys, but players can expect personal attention these days,” said Mr. Kauffman, noting that paying a six-figure salary for an assistant to help protect a billion-dollar investment — which a sports team often is these days — is not a lot.
He said that last year the Hornets hired the former all-star shooter Mark Price, now the coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, primarily to help Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, a star who makes $13 million a year, reform his jump shot. “It has made the market for assistant coaches who have a reputation all the more lucrative.”
Even with the more-than-comfortable salaries now available to assistants, most still aspire to become head coaches, said Mr. Didinger, the writer and commentator.
“There may be some who don’t want the hassle of dealing with the media or the fans and just want to stay in the background,” Mr. Didinger said. “Sometimes there is someone who loves being an offensive coordinator or a special-teams coach, but in reality, most of the people who come to the N.F.L. want the opportunity to be the face of the franchise.
“I can’t imagine it is any different in college,” he said, “even if they can make a salary unheard-of only a generation ago.”
Assistant Coaches Join the Millionaire’s Club
By ROBERT STRAUSSFEB. 12, 2016
Photo
The huge growth in college football assistant coaches’ salaries has been attributed to Nick Saban, head coach at the University of Alabama since 2007.
Bill Belichick is said to be the highest-paid coach in professional sports, with a salary estimated by Forbes at more than $7.5 million a year. To many, the pay is justified, given his four Super Bowl wins for the New England Patriots.
But back when he got started as an assistant coach for the Baltimore Colts, Belichick made a measly $25 a week — just about the going rate.
“Assistant coaches weren’t even looked upon as full-time employees,” said Ray Didinger, a Pro Football Hall of Fame writer and a broadcaster for Comcast’s SportsNet Philadelphia. “They worked in the season, and when the season was over, they went back home and were substitute teachers or assistant salesmen or beer distributors.”
Things are far different today. Take Kenny Payne. He is making $500,000 a year, including bonuses, as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. That is about the same he made as a player in the high-paying National Basketball Association in 1993, the last of his four seasons as a small forward for the Philadelphia 76ers, a year in which he averaged 6.5 points per game.
But even Payne’s salary is modest compared with what some major-college football assistant coaches are paid. According to USA Today, which does an annual survey of collegiate assistant coach salaries, nine assistants at N.C.A.A. Division I football programs made more than $1 million last year, topped by Will Muschamp, the Auburn defensive coordinator, who made $1.6 million and has since taken the head coaching job at the University of South Carolina. Two assistants at Louisiana State University, Cam Cameron, offensive coordinator, and Kevin Steele, defensive coordinator, made $1.5 million and $1 million, respectively. (Steele has now taken Muschamp’s job at Auburn.)
The emergence of such princely salaries for non-head coaches at the pro and collegiate levels coincides with the vast sums flowing to sports in recent years. The N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, for example, has taken in $740 million a year in TV revenue since 2011, up from $500 million a year from 2001-10, and the other major sports have seen similar rises.
Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE
When Amateur Ironmen Pay for the Elite TreatmentFEB. 12, 2016
The Choices That Led Small Business Owners to WealthFEB. 12, 2016
A Savvy Breed of Winemaker Takes Business Sense to the WineryFEB. 12, 2016
Gilbert M. Gaul, author of “Billion-Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football,” links inflation in college football assistant coaches’ salaries to Nick Saban’s arrival as head coach at the University of Alabama in 2007, after coaching the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins. Alabama last month won Saban his fourth national championship as head coach of the Crimson Tide.
Photo
Kenny Payne made $500,000 last year as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. Credit Joe Robbins/Getty Images
“He told Alabama, ‘If you want me to come, you have to invest,’” said Mr. Gaul, who added that Alabama’s football budget grew from $16 million in 2006 to its current $45 million.
Wealth Special Section
Articles on managing fortunes, improving lifestyles and finding financial security.
The Choices That Led Small Business Owners to Wealth FEB 12
When the Supposed Experts Lead Buyers Astray FEB 12
When Amateur Ironmen Pay for the Elite Treatment FEB 12
A Savvy Breed of Winemaker Takes Business Sense to the Winery FEB 12
For Some, It’s Time to Look Overseas Again FEB 12
See More »
“A part of that was that he wanted to pay assistant coaches so they would come to Alabama,” Mr. Gaul said. “He was used to a pro system, with intense, specialized assistant coaches.”
According to USA Today, Alabama paid its 10 assistant coaches — the most allowed by the N.C.A.A. in Division I — a total of $5.2 million last year.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
For his book, Mr. Gaul tried to compare men’s football and basketball coaching salaries with women’s collegiate sports budgets. “A good women’s rowing program may cost $1.2 million total — coaches, facilities, travel, whatever,” Mr. Gaul said. So that entire program would cost less than a year’s pay of any of seven assistant football coaches in the millionaires’ club. Assistant coaches in sports like softball or even men’s cross-country might make $30,000 or $40,000 a year.
The lucrative assistant coaching market helps explain why Steve Kauffman of Kauffman Sports Management Group in Malibu, Calif., who was Payne’s agent as a player, has shifted his agency’s specialization to coaches and front-office personnel. But another factor in the agency’s shift, and in coach salary inflation, is, ironically, the player salary cap in the N.B.A.
Photo
As the defensive coordinator for Auburn University’s football team, Will Muschamp earned $1.6 million last year. Credit Michael Chang/Getty Images
N.B.A. teams must limit what they pay players, but there is no cap for everything else. Thus, teams can pay assistant coaches as much as they want, and have as many as they want. Mr. Kauffman pointed to the Charlotte Hornets, where his clients are the head coach, Steve Clifford, and three of the Hornets’ six assistant coaches, including the Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing. In another era, the bench would not be the place for such a star, but with salaries averaging about $800,000 for top assistants, it’s a good place to be.
“It might seem like a lot to have six or seven assistants for a team of 12 guys, but players can expect personal attention these days,” said Mr. Kauffman, noting that paying a six-figure salary for an assistant to help protect a billion-dollar investment — which a sports team often is these days — is not a lot.
He said that last year the Hornets hired the former all-star shooter Mark Price, now the coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, primarily to help Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, a star who makes $13 million a year, reform his jump shot. “It has made the market for assistant coaches who have a reputation all the more lucrative.”
Even with the more-than-comfortable salaries now available to assistants, most still aspire to become head coaches, said Mr. Didinger, the writer and commentator.
“There may be some who don’t want the hassle of dealing with the media or the fans and just want to stay in the background,” Mr. Didinger said. “Sometimes there is someone who loves being an offensive coordinator or a special-teams coach, but in reality, most of the people who come to the N.F.L. want the opportunity to be the face of the franchise.
“I can’t imagine it is any different in college,” he said, “even if they can make a salary unheard-of only a generation ago.”
