The Mountain West Conference underwent a wholesale turnover in the offseason with half of the 12 teams changing head football coaches.
But even in the free-spending, pre-pandemic days of arms-race hiring one thing didn’t change for the University of Hawaii.
As the conference prepares to open its COVID-19 delayed season this week, UH still ranks 10th among the 12 schools in the MWC with the $760,000 base salary it is paying its head coach, Todd Graham, according to his contract and data from USA Today’s annual salary survey released Thursday.
Only in the spend-thrift environment of major college football could $760,000, a fortune by most standards (and the highest wage of any state employee in Hawaii in 2020), be considered a well below-average salary.
Yet, despite Graham’s previous 12 seasons as a Division I head coach, the third most in the conference, and a 61% winning percentage, at least six, and probably seven, of his conference brethren will be making $1 million or more this year. Nationally, more than 95 of the 130 Football Bowl Subdivision coaches have larger contracted paydays.
Not to mention that Nevada-Las Vegas will be paying its rookie head coach, Marcus Arroyo, $1.5 million, or nearly double Graham’s take. New Mexico’s first-time head coach, Danny Gonzalez, will be getting just $35,000 less than Graham.
That not only says a lot about the extravagant spending of the industry but something about the rare circumstances that made Graham available at a salary that is less than what he was listed at more than a decade ago at Tulsa.
Fired by Arizona State following the 2017 season in which he went 7-6, Graham itched to get back in coaching after a two-year hiatus. And UH was one of the last open jobs in late January after Nick Rolovich bolted for greener pastures at Washington State.
“I think one of the things (athletic director) David Matlin has done exceptionally well is not fall into this trap,” UH President David Lassner has said. “I mean, when our football coach was offered a five-fold (increase of his $600,004 salary to $3.1 million by WSU) we didn’t … we’re (just) not going to counter that.”
UH said it had been prepared to offer Rolovich the same package ($760,000 this year followed by four seasons at $800,000) that Graham eventually agreed to.
Of course, Graham was well positioned to take less than the going rate since he was in the midst of a more than $12 million buyout of his contract by ASU, according to the Arizona Republic.
Matlin and Neil Cornrich, the agent who negotiated the 2012 agreement, declined comment, but according to terms of a copy of that contract, Graham was due 35% (more than $4 million) up front and the remaining 65% (more than $8 million) spread over installment checks through June 2021.
Many coaches contracts have so-called “offsetting” clauses that would subtract what the new employer is paying the coach from the amount owed by the former school, but there was no sign of that in the ASU agreement.
Which means while UH would be paying Graham $760,000 in 2020 and $800,000 in 2021, the contract terms say the Sun Devils could be on the hook for more than $2 million in 2020 and more than $1 million in 2021 for him not to coach for ASU.
If that doesn’t make much sense, then welcome to the economics of major college athletics.
Mountain West moolah
2020 football coaches base salaries
Rk Coach School Salary
1. Bryan Harsin Boise State $1.85 million
2. Craig Bohl Wyoming $1.51 million
3. Steve Addazio Colorado State $1.5 million
4. Marcus Arroyo UNLV $1.5 million
5. Kalen DeBoer Fresno State $1.3 million
6. Brady Hoke San Diego State $1 million
7. Troy Calhoun Air Force $975,000*
8. Gary Anderson Utah State $900,000
9. Brent Brennan San Jose State $850,000
10. Todd Graham Hawaii $760,000
11. Danny Gonzalez New Mexico $725,000
12. Jay Norvell Nevada $625,000
* Figure not released by Air Force but an estimate based on previous seasons’ earnings.
Source: USAToday survey.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
