NC State’s Coaching Salaries

It is mandatory that you read this link before proceeding with the remainder of this entry.

NC State hired new coaches for our two most prominent sports this year. With this said, we thought that it would be worthwhile to share information and links to the compensation structures for both Sidney Lowe and Tom O’Brien. One day there will be a need for someone to find this information and it will be nice for it to be archived.

Tom O’Brien
Link to N&O story

Much has been made of O’Brien’s incentive-laden compensation structure. We are big fans of these structures as they pay like most of the real world pays by incenting for performance.

By most accounts, Tom O’Brien’s will earn an minimum of approximately $1.1 million a year in base salary/compensation; none of which is paid by the private Wolfpack Club. TOB’s initial contract is a seven year deal.

NC State will pay TOB as much as $750,000 a year in incentives, including $300,000 for winning an ACC championship. For example, if TOB/NCS wins an ACC title, was among the top five in a final poll, won eight ACC games and had a graduation rate of 55 %, then O’Brien would earn a total of $1.85 million.

Here are the incentives (from N&O):

* $100,000 for reaching the ACC Championship Game.

* $200,000 for winning the ACC championship and/or reaching a BCS bowl.

* $50,000 for reaching any non-BCS bowl.

* $200,000 for being ranked No. 1 to No. 5 in any of the final polls (The Associated Press, USA Today/ESPN, BCS) or …

* $150,000 if the Pack finishes ranked No. 6 through No. 10 or …

* $100,000 if the Pack finishes ranked No. 11 through No. 15 or ….

* $50,000 if the Pack finishes No. 16 through No. 20. (O’Brien will be compensated based on the team’s highest ranking.)

* $50,000 for winning five ACC games in a season and an additional $50,000 for each win after the fifth ACC victory (ACC teams play eight conference games during the season).

* $50,000 if the adjusted graduation rate for football players is 55 percent or better.

Sidney Lowe
The N&O reported that Sidney Lowe has signed a (relative) unconventional 6-year contract with NC State as opposed to a traditional 5-year one. The contract and details are highlighed in this article.

The N&O highlighted the following

* BASE SALARY: $210,000

* SUPPLEMENTAL ANNUAL COMPENSATION: $290,000

* TV/RADIO ANNUAL COMPENSATION: $250,000

* ANNUAL BONUS INCENTIVES: After Lowe’s second season, a $50,000 annual bonus for years in which a team’s NCAA adjusted graduation rate over the preceding six-year period is 55% or higher.

* For ACC regular-season championship, ACC Tournament championship or NCAA Tournament bid, two months salary ($35,000).

* For appearance in the NCAA Tournament’s regional semifinals (Sweet 16), three months salary ($52,500).

* For appearance in the NCAA Tournament semifinals (Final Four), four months salary ($70,000)

* (Note: championship and postseason bonuses cannot exceed four months salary in any year.)

* TERMINATION WITHOUT CAUSE: $510,000 a year for remaining years on contract.

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General NC State Administration Sidney Lowe Tom O'Brien

16 Responses to NC State’s Coaching Salaries

  1. Rick 12/18/2006 at 2:26 PM #

    Who came up with the contracts?
    It seems to smart to be LF.

  2. RedTerror29 12/18/2006 at 2:43 PM #

    I haven’t seen much made of O’Brien getting a seven year deal. I sure hope Fowler didn’t add on two extra years because of the time he deemed necessary to “turnaround” the program (the talent is already there). I assume O’Brien asked for it and we complied as he’s a proven commodity.

    So why did he ask? With his age, it seems to suggest he is planning on retiring in seven years. Which could be good all around – plenty of time for O’Brien to get his conference championship and BCS bowl, long enough not to hurt recruiting too much, and short enough to avoid the program hitting its limits under O’Brien and getting stale (as appears to be the case with BC).

    It would also leave us in a very strong financial position to hire the next coach as long as we were successful under O’Brien.

  3. highonlowe 12/18/2006 at 2:52 PM #

    Great info here! The financial details of our programs are always interesting, especially since its sometimes clear that maximizing profits trumps winning ballgames in the eyes of our atheletics department.
    Do we know any info on the coaches’s private endorsements at this point? Like the adidas deal, is it renegotiated for new coaches or are we locked into a set time-period?

  4. GAWolf 12/18/2006 at 3:28 PM #

    I questioned the 7 year contract immediately. It seems like 5 is a plenty to see whether a coach is a fit or not. I think O’Brien will pan out, so I’m not too concerned about the length of the contract… but we never know.

    Also, I’m a fan of financial incentives for

  5. GAWolf 12/18/2006 at 3:30 PM #

    Ooops.

    … employees. I think all of this is very wise. While I believe coaches are hired to win, I have no problem with dangling a carrot to better insure they’re always on the same page with their employer.

  6. class of 74 12/18/2006 at 3:43 PM #

    Can you say bargain? Look at what we pay compared to our two closest neighbors and rivals. In terms of total dollars for the two revenue coaches we must be over $400k lower than Duke and $1.2 to $1.4 lower than UNC’s totals. Lowe will prove to be a steal at $750k based on performance and recruiting so far, and TOB is not breaking the bank relative to the other coaches in the league either.

  7. RAWFS 12/18/2006 at 3:46 PM #

    It seems like Coach O’Brien will have a lot of reasons to maximize his teams performance.

    If he makes a BCS bowl, that salary becomes a major bargain even at its highest payouts.

  8. Sam92 12/18/2006 at 5:05 PM #

    thanks for the great post

    I am *so glad* to see the performance-based incentives in TOB’s contract — there is nothing like an economic incentive to produce performance.

    I also found it noteworthy from the N&O article that TOB’s comp seems significantly lower than Butch Davis — which I view as more credit to us for getting a quality hire for less $$ (and, we probably would have had a more difficult time offering as much $$ as UNC; w. murphy notwithstanding, they just have more cash to throw around than we do)

    I didn’t really focus on Sid — I figured we just gave him something fair, he really wanted the job.

  9. Buddygreen 12/18/2006 at 5:45 PM #

    Really nice to see graduation rates as part of TOB’s contract. Be nice to see that be a bigger part of coaches contracts. Didn’t notice notice such a clause in the institute of liberal learning, UNX and Butch Davis. Rumor is ol Butch having a hard time putting together a staff. Guess after the high pay off of Bunting and his multi year assistant contracts, then the high dollar for Butch, on top of the Big Roy contract, then with Kenan not selling out and the Dean Dome losing money, looks like the money not going tto be there for high assistant pay. I think Pack sitting very good right now, the Wolfpack Club didn’t have to pay any money towards TOB’s contract. Lots of money sitting around for assistants. TOB will take care of his assistants, watch and see. We going to be sitting pretty in football!

  10. packpigskinfan23 12/18/2006 at 5:55 PM #

    ^I just wish we would hear something on the TOB assistants soon….

    I know…. patience patience….

    thats not a trait I was born with however…. =)

  11. Andy 12/18/2006 at 6:25 PM #

    very good article on bball homecourt atmospheres:

    http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/main/index.cgi?8081

    (feel free to delete if this is the wrong place to post it)

  12. burnbarn 12/18/2006 at 6:35 PM #

    It seems we value fb more than bball in terms of total package. I was a little surprised by this. I am glad there are academic incentives, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not that big of a deal compared with say getting to a BCS bowl.

    It is good to see the performance based pay.. and in terms of 7 years.. TOB says this will be his last gig.. And when was the last time a long contract kept anyone from being fired.. it is doubtful anyone would call for his head in the first 4 years.

  13. Clarksa 12/18/2006 at 7:55 PM #

    It seems we got quite the bargin with TOB…

  14. highonlowe 12/19/2006 at 3:11 PM #

    Not sure if anyone is still checking this thread but I didn’t know where to post this.
    This is a great article on the NCAA bowl system, how profitable it truely is (the profit from the minor bowls subsizes loses by the BCS bowls; yes, the BCS bowls are unprofitable for networks), and why we’ll see even more bowls before we’ll see a playoff.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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    kX96k6 Very good blog post.Much thanks again. Fantastic.

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