Nine days after the University of Hawaii defeated Nevada-Las Vegas last month, the Rebels fired their football coach and then vowed to go deep into the checkbook in resolve to be championship competitive.
“We’re going to be competitive (in terms of salary),” UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois pledged to the media and fans. “We’ll be very competitive in the Mountain West Conference.”
By increasing by nearly 150% what it will pay its head coach annually — going from $602,000 for Tony Sanchez in 2019 to $1.5 million for rookie head coach Marcus Arroyo in 2020 — UNLV last week became not only the latest but, now, biggest contributor to the rapidly escalating salary arms race in the Mountain West.
Exhibit “B” last week was San Jose State coughing up a 40% raise to $850,000 and three-year contract extension for Brent Brennan after a 5-7 season.
Exhibit “C” is the $1.5 million (plus $50,000 annual raises) Colorado State said it will pay new coach Steve Addazio on top of writing $1.825 million in checks over three years to buy out his predecessor, Mike Bobo.
Two more schools, Fresno State and New Mexico, still have head coaching vacancies to fill.
But when the dollar bills stop flying it is a good bet that the average head coaching salary in the league will rise significantly above the approximately $1.1 million members paid out this season. This despite the fact that no oil wells have been discovered on any of the campuses lately.
UH’s Nick Rolovich is receiving $600,004 for his MWC Coach of the Year season plus bonuses and, barring a new agreement, is due a base salary of $612,504 for 2020, according to terms of the 11-month-old deal.
Boise State, which won its conference-leading third championship game Dec. 7, used to be the salary pace-setter. But so driven has the competition become to catch, if not supplant, the Broncos that their head coach, Bryan Harsin, ranked third in salary ($1.75 million) behind Wyoming’s Craig Bohl ($2.13 million) and Bobo ($1.8 million.)
Keep in mind that none of these athletic departments fully pay for themselves on a regular basis without considerable school and student fee support. In that, they are like the vast majority of the 130 schools in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision, where UH also competes.
New Mexico, which said it will pay $825,000 to buy out Bob Davie from his contract, earlier this year dropped four sports and was still projected to run at a seven-figure deficit before the buyout.
So-called “guarantee” games against Texas A&M, Louisiana State and Auburn, each worth in excess of $1 million, over the next three years, are expected to help underwrite Davie’s buyout.
Fresno State is the most intriguing case currently on the clock. The Bulldogs are looking for a successor to Jeff Tedford, who is stepping down for medical reasons, and a suitable replacement may not come cheap.
Tedford was receiving $1.61 million in base annual salary but was the reigning king of bonuses, averaging more than $1.2 million in additional bonuses in 2017 and ’18 while guiding the Bulldogs to conference championship games.
Meanwhile, as UNLV is the latest demonstration, the price of poker is going up in the Mountain West.
MONEY BALL
Mountain West Conference coaching salaries
COACH SCHOOL SALARY
Craig Bohl Wyoming $2.13 million
Bryan Harsin Boise State $1.75 million
Steve Addazio* Colorado State $1.5 million
Marcus Arroyo* UNLV $1.5 million
Gary Andersen Utah State $900,000
Rocky Long San Diego State $878,228
Troy Calhoun@ Air Force $850,000
Brent Brennan# San Jose State $850,000
Nick Rolovich Hawaii $600,004
Jay Norvell Nevada $500,000
*—New hire. #—New contract. @—Estimated.
Sources: USA Today study, other media reports.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
