Just a Slice | by Jay

The Fort Wayne J-G had a bit about Charlie's '05-'06 salary (the numbers were gleaned from last year's public financial statements submitted by ND), and it wasn't anywhere close to the $3-$4 million per year that Charlie was rumored to be pulling down. But don't let that fool you; keep in mind that the reported salary ($565,566 in Charlie's case) is simply one piece of the overall compensation package for your typical college football coach.

Take Kirk Ferentz, for example. Last summer USA Today used the Iowa head coach as a case study in a revealing article about the burgeoning riches of NCAA football contracts. (They also put together a nifty searchable database of coaches salaries for the same series). Ferentz's base salary ($1.44MM) is only about 30% of his total payday ($4.64MM), with the rest made up from bonuses, incentives, and supplemental payments. I think we can assume it's similar for Charlie. To get a realistic picture of his overall compensation, in addition to the base salary you have to factor in his apparel contracts, fees for TV and radio shows, payments for football camps, bonuses, and any built-in incentives he might have. Furthermore, we have no idea how the payouts are structured over the length of the contract; it could very well be backloaded. There's no doubt Charlie is making much more than 550k.

Anyway, the real juice in the FWJG article was this section:

Weis was one of three coaches among Notre Dame’s top five highest-paid employees in 2005-06, but he’s not the highest-paid coach.

That distinction goes to Tyrone Willingham. The school paid the former football coach $650,000 as part of his contract settlement after firing him on Nov. 30, 2004. He also received $64 in other expenses. Willingham, who will enter his third season at the University of Washington in 2007, was the highest-paid employee – or former employee – at Notre Dame.

In the last fiscal year Willingham was employed by Notre Dame, he was paid $1,939,468 in salary along with $3,259,440 in deferred compensation and employee benefits, likely due to the buyout of his contract.

How about that. I knew we still had Willingham on the company dole, but seeing the numbers in the black and white like that just makes me wince.

(Also, what's Ty going to do with the $64 he received in "other expenses"? I've got just the thing.)