There’s a reason it’s called the Big Dance. The hardwood competition comes with a payout.
Last year, the Big 12 Conference received $19 million for its recent successes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s men’s basketball tournaments; the Big East Conference picked up $25 million. It may be no surprise, then, that college coaches of top performing teams have become accustomed to performance-based bonuses.
According to the NCAA, more than $180 million was paid directly to conferences last year for participation in the March Madness tournament.
As conferences collect the cash, they reward their member schools for their achievements. As schools receive dividends, it only makes sense that the coaches of teams generating the revenue should benefit, said Kyle Moats, director of athletics for Missouri State University.
“Usually, incentives are tied to the financial results (coaches) produce,” Moats said. “For example, if a football coach takes his team to a bowl game, there’s financial compensation. (Universities) can give money back because you’re going to get quite a bit.”
At Missouri State, Women’s Head Basketball Coach Nyla Milleson has earned several bonuses this year based on her team’s performance.
According to her contract, Milleson earned $10,000 on top of her $140,000 base salary after leading the team to become regular season champion of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Had her team won the post-season conference tournament, she would have received an additional $10,000.
If her team would have gone into the NCAA tournament, she would have garnered $10,000 just for the invitation, plus $7,500 for each victory and one of the following: $10,000 for a Sweet Sixteen appearance; $17,500 for making the Elite Eight; $35,000 for the Final Four; or $50,000 for bringing home the title.
Though the team didn’t make the NCAA cut this year, Milleson was still earning money in the National Invitation Tournament as of March 21. She received $2,500 for the invitation and $5,000 for each victory, earning the coach $12,500 in bonuses prior to the March 22 game against Oklahoma State.
Men’s Head Basketball Coach Paul Lusk missed additional earnings with his team’s sixth-place finish in the Missouri Valley and an early loss in the conference’s post-season tournament, according to his contract.
Lusk could have earned $10,000 for finishing atop the MVC, or $5,000 for a second place finish. Had the Bears won the Valley’s post-season tournament, he would have netted another $10,000. Lusk would have received $10,000 for an NCAA invitation and $20,000 for each victory of the seven potential games, with no lump sum for taking the title. Had Lusk’s team made it to the NIT, his payout would have been equal to Milleson’s take.
In his first year, MSU coach Lusk earned a $241,380 base salary, plus benefits that include a vehicle for him to use and more than $90,000 to help raise money for the athletic department.
Both Milleson and Lusk just missed bonuses tied to game attendance averages.
Lusk was in line for $10,000, if average attendance was 8,000 or more; $20,000 for 9,000 seats filled; and $30,000 for 10,000 people per game.
Milleson could have received $2,500 extra if average game attendance was 4,000 or more; $5,000 for 5,000 folks; $10,000 for 6,000 in attendance; and $15,000 for more than 7,000 fans.
According to Moats, the men’s team this year averaged 7,050 fans through the gate, and the women’s games drew 3,052 on average.
Moats said in the 20 years he’s been working for athletic departments, incentives have always been part of the pay game. He said the size of the incentives is likely to increase with the size and success of the conference, but the practice itself is commonplace.
In April 2011, the Missouri Valley received a payment of $5.03 million – the conference’s largest ever – from the NCAA Basketball Pool Distribution Fund. The Big Ten Conference, by comparison, netted $18.5 million. Lusk’s former head coach at Purdue University, a Big Ten school, made a salary almost identical to Lusk: $243,734. But Matt Painter has the potential to make $2.9 million when including performance-based bonuses.
This year, the MVC is expecting roughly $4.4 million, based on the Valley’s performance in the men’s tournament during the last six years, according to Commissioner Doug Elgin. The money is made possible from the huge revenues the NCAA receives for broadcasting rights.
Last year, the NCAA signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with CBS Sports and Time Warner. That means the NCAA is generating $776 million per year just from basketball tournament revenues.
The Missouri Valley’s take is determined based on a point system, with each game a Valley team plays in the tournament earning one point. Last year’s earnings were based on the conference’s 2005–10 performance, where it racked up 21 points. The teams that play receive half of the value of one point for expenses for each weekend it was in the tournament in that year. This year, that means Wichita State and Creighton universities each received roughly $122,000 to cover team expenses. The rest of the money, after conference expenses are deducted, is distributed evenly among the conference’s 10 schools, which means Missouri State earns money this year despite the fact that it wasn’t in the tournament based on the recent success of the conference.
“The total basketball pool dollars that we capture in the spring have generally (represented) 70 percent to 75 percent of our total gross revenues of the conference,” Elgin said. “Those revenues that we generate from television rights’ fees, marketing, sponsorships and ticket sales are dwarfed by the total monies we gain from the NCAA tournament.”
Incentives of some variety are written into the contracts of each of Missouri State’s head athletic coaches, Moats said.
“Coaches are no different than anybody else, and they’re going to look and see what other coaches would get in the marketplace,” Moats said. “The expectation is that we are going to have (incentives). If we didn’t have some of those, that would hurt us. What we have probably just keeps us level.”[[In-content Ad]]
