Is Carolina being a trend-setter in coaching compensation?
We know that these outrageous coaching salaries at Power 5 schools will not come down until more high-paid Hall of Famers retire, which may have begun at UNC with Roy Williams’ departure.
Ol’ Roy took home more than $4 million annually, which was No. 6 in the latest USA Today list of college basketball coaches, but only half of what John Calipari is paid by Kentucky and almost half of what Duke dishes to Coach K. Villanova’s Jay Wright is listed at No. 3 with 6-plus million, and Chris Beard will be making more than 5 mill now that he has moved from Texas Tech to Texas.
Hubert Davis will earn $1 million in salary and extra benefits from radio-TV, Nike, Rams Club, etc., which is right in line with what a first-year head coach should make, no matter the school. Hubert can almost double that if he maxes out merit-based bonuses of playing deep into the post season and, probably, his kids excelling in the classroom.
UNC could be at the forefront of the new fiscal responsibility in coaching reparation. Once more 70-year-old superstars retire and are replaced by younger proteges, market values will drop and salaries will fall into line at most schools. When Nick Saban steps down, Alabama can probably lure the last of the big-timers, but other colleges won’t have to do that and, hopefully, won’t want to do that.
Carolina is lucky to have a capable 51-year-old ready to take over, and Hubert didn’t have much bargaining power beyond what he thought was fair. He always wanted to be the head coach at his alma mater, and fortunately Williams supported him. As is, Davis could make 10 times what he earned as an assistant, a pretty good raise.
Clearly, college athletics needs a major makeover. Besides Power 5 college coaching pay coming down to earth, the recruiting arms race for facilities also requires adjudication, and that can only happen if schools and conferences agree to applying limits.
If so, there would be more money for where it belongs . . . in the pockets of the athletes, without whom we wouldn’t be discussing the subject of a college sports industry out of control. Kudos to Carolina for achieving the goal of keeping its basketball program competitive while setting an example for other institutions to follow.
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