METHODOLOGY

To determine the total pay packages of athletics directors we requested all forms of compensation for the athletics directors at public schools. About 10 of the schools are private or are public schools covered under state law exempting them from releasing salary data on athletics directors. For those schools, we used compensation information from the school’s most recent Internal Revenue Service Form 990 filing. Since contract years varied greatly among the operative employment agreements of the schools surveyed, we determined Base Salary as of April 1, 2018 and Other University Compensation earned or received during the contract year that included the 2017-2018 academic year. Compensation adjustments not memorialized in writing as of the date of the document request may affect compensation totals. Compensation for athletic directors of private schools was determined by reviewing the schools' most recent IRS Form 990 filings.  A not available (N/A) in the chart denotes schools that are private or did not release the information or schools whose athletic directors are new and had not filed an outside income report.

EXPLANATIONS OF COMPENSATION CATEGORIES

BASE SALARY:  Income designated as Base Salary in the Contracts, which sum is used to determine the schools’ benefits obligations such as retirement contributions.

OTHER UNIVERSITY COMPENSATION:  Income from Contract provisions other than Base Salary that is paid, or guaranteed, by the university or affiliated organizations, such as a foundation. Examples include payments in consideration for: shoe and apparel use; television, radio or other media appearances; personal appearances.

It also includes deferred payments earned annually, conditional or otherwise; certain payments based on attendance, ticket revenue or sales; contractual expense accounts (if unaudited) or housing allowances; signing and other one-time bonuses earned in the current contract year; and buyouts paid to an athletics director's previous employer. These one-time or non-recurring payments may skew an athletic director’s compensation in a given year relative to its average over the Contract’s term.

It does not include amounts that may have been earned as annual incentive bonuses in other years, the value of standard university benefits such as health care or the value of potentially taxable items called for in Contracts such as cars; country club memberships; game tickets for the regular season, postseason and other sports; the value of stadium suites, travel upgrades, private aircraft or spouse/family travel and game tickets.

Salaries reported do not take into account deductions that have, or may, occur because of state government furlough, or other pay-reduction, actions.

TOTAL COMPENSATION: Sum of university compensation. A 2016 NCAA rule change ended the schools’ obligations to report outside income, so outside income (typically $0.0 or a nominal sum for athletic directors) is not presented.

MAXIMUM BONUS: The greatest amount that can be received for meeting all prescribed performance goals (for instance: departmental academic and financial benchmarks; or competitive achievements of all or specific teams), and/or athlete conduct  rules-and compliance goals.  It typically does not include possible payments based on percentages of ticket revenue or sales or departmental fundraising amounts, unless such amounts can be independently determined.

CREDITS:

By: Robert Lattinville and Roger Denny, co-chairs of the Collegiate Athletics Legal Team at Spencer Fane LLP.