In an advertisement splashed all over television here last autumn, Northwestern football coach Gary Barnett pulls up outside Dyche Stadium in a Chevrolet. He hops out and blows his whistle, whereupon five bulky linemen in Wildcat uniforms–actors, in fact–form a cordon around the vehicle.
“It’s great to be a coach,” Barnett says with a fatuous smile.
“Boy, is it ever,” University of Chicago economist Alan Sanderson said, recalling the TV spot.
The NCAA allows coaches to keep endorsement money. But athletes risk their eligibility by merely appearing in a commercial advertisement, and they are strictly barred from making paid endorsements, which is why paid extras posed as players in Barnett’s ad.
At a time when many critics contend that student-athletes don’t receive fair compensation, endorsements are only one of the ways coaches in big-time college sports make big-time profits.
According to a Tribune survey of Big Ten salaries and contracts, Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr’s $357,000 salary is the highest among football and men’s basketball coaches. But salary, in many cases, is only a fraction of a coach’s actual earnings. Most also enjoy lucrative incomes from summer camps, television shows and shoe deals.
The survey revealed some interesting distinctions among conference members. Some schools, such as Iowa and Illinois, report all of their coaches’ incomes. But others, including Indiana and Purdue, consider outside compensation “personal,” even though the coach trades on the school’s name to cut the deals.
As the Big Ten’s lone private school, Northwestern does not report salaries; Barnett signed a reported 12-year, $5 million deal last year. Neither does Penn State, even though it is partly tax-supported. Compensation for coaches apparently is a touchy subject in State College, Pa. Asked what he makes, Nittany Lions football coach Joe Paterno replied: “It’s not fair for me to tell you. I’ve been here for 47 years, and 5 percent increases every year . . . It adds up.”
Paterno favors giving athletes a $75-a-month stipend, but many of his colleagues oppose paying players. Perhaps that’s because coaches could be among the first to suffer cuts if the NCAA adopted pay-for-play.
“If you end up paying athletes, the money’s got to come from somewhere–and I think it would come from coaches’ salaries,” said Richard Sheehan, a Notre Dame economist.
“I guess I’d like to see that. I can’t see paying a minor-league, to be blunt, coach a million dollars. Steve Spurrier (who led Florida to the 1996 national championship) might be worth that much because he could command that in the NFL. But most college coaches aren’t worth nearly that much.”
