A Tale of Three Coaches: How Coaching Contracts Are Structured

Ever wonder how coach contracts are structured? SFN tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Sendek Contract With Capitol Broadcasting
Sendek Contract With ADIDAS
Sendek Contract with the University

Herb Sendek’s NC State Contract
$125,000 University pay
$575,000 Capitol/Wolfpack Sports Marketing
$80,000 ADIDAS
$0 Wolfpack Club
$780,000 per year

Roy Williams’ UNC Contract
$260,000 University pay
$347,000 Learfield/Tar Heel Sports Marketing
$500,000 NIKE
$25,000 expense account
$780,000 Rams Club (not guaranteed)
$1,912,300 per year

Matt Doherty’s UNC Contract
$145,000 University pay
$185,000 Learfield/Tar Heel Sports Marketing
$500,000 NIKE
$25,000 expense account
$0 Rams Club
$830,000 per year

from the N&O archive

Here’s how the deal breaks down:

Williams, 53, will be paid $260,000 annually, plus an annual expense account of $25,000, paid by the UNC athletics department.

He will earn $347,300 annually from Learfield Communications Inc. for multi-media responsibilities, including television and radio shows. He will continue to receive $500,000 annually from Nike (in a contract separate from the shoe company’s deal with UNC). Williams’ Nike contract, negotiated while he was at the University of Kansas, moved to UNC with him with the permission of Nike and Kansas.

UNC also agreed to provide Williams a supplemental compensation package worth about $3.9 million spread over five years.

Baddour said that money comes from funds specifically donated by alumni and other supporters for Williams’ financial package and is not guaranteed.

The contract also includes bonus provisions if Williams’ teams reach the NCAA Tournament, reach the final eight in the tournament and graduate at a rate that equals that of the student body. For each accomplishment, he would receive a bonus month of pay, about $21,000. Women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell and football coach John Bunting have similar bonus stipulations, Baddour said.

“I didn’t have very many doubts that we could get it done,” Williams said Friday night at the “Late Night with Roy Williams” midnight madness celebration at UNC. “I’ve lost sleep over a lot of things lately, but that wasn’t one of them.”

Williams’ contract could not be finalized until the university system’s Board of Governors allowed an exemption from certain guidelines, adopted after former UNC football coach Dick Crum and former N.C. State basketball coach Jim Valvano were given buyouts totaling more than $1.4 million.

Former UNC system President William Friday decried the deal. He said it runs counter to recommendations of the Knight Commission on college sports, of which Friday is co-chair, to try to stem the tide of rising coaches salaries.

“Recently we were told that the university had failed to retain bright and talented faculty members in over 50 of the 76 competitive offers received to date because no funds were available to meet these challenges,” he said. “In these salary negotiations, a special fund of $3.8 million has been raised to meet the competition. Hopefully, a renewed effort, a very strong effort, will be made to stop these serious losses of faculty talent the university is now experiencing.”

UNC Chancellor James Moeser e-mailed a message to faculty and staff leaders, acknowledging sensitivity to the contrast between Williams’ package and faculty and staff pay.

“The financial health of our comprehensive program depends upon a stable, successful basketball program, and we’re completely confident in Roy Williams’ ability to take the program there,” Moeser wrote.

“Coming from an arts and humanities background myself, I know it can be difficult to understand the complexities of the marketplace. We see those differences among our own campus units. This contract reflects the marketplace for the nation’s best basketball coaches.”

Matt Doherty, who had a six-year contract that paid him a total of $855,000 annually. Doherty’s contract included a base salary of about $145,000 annually, a $25,000 expense account, $500,000 annually from Nike, and about $185,000 a year from Learfield Inc., the multimedia company with which the university contracts.

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33 Responses to A Tale of Three Coaches: How Coaching Contracts Are Structured

  1. statewillnevercompete 04/02/2006 at 1:47 PM #

    any break down on coach k’s salary breakdown?

  2. site admin 04/02/2006 at 1:48 PM #

    you typically can’t find private school contracts

  3. Waxhaw 04/02/2006 at 2:39 PM #

    I didn’t realize Williams recieved that much from Nike.

  4. dranchor 04/02/2006 at 2:49 PM #

    There was an article on the weekend journal (WSJ) around March 11th, discussing the different ncaa progams revenue/ cost items and also about coach’s pay. It had Roy and K around the $1.4mm mark.

  5. paul 04/02/2006 at 3:11 PM #

    did these faxes come from Freedom of Information Act requests? or were they obtained from people with access who will not be named?

  6. site admin 04/02/2006 at 3:11 PM #

    We have that WSJ article. Will be posting it soon.

  7. sf59 04/02/2006 at 3:16 PM #

    What is the max packet we could configure if we had to? ball park

  8. Dan 04/02/2006 at 3:36 PM #

    Anyone know what the contracts of Rick Pitino and Jay Wright look like?

    I wouldnt mind seeing a coach with NYC credibility, a la Jimmy V and even Herb to a lesser extent. NYC is a place where Duke has never really recruited all that well and Roy is only just starting there (Danny Green). NC State has done well there already with Hodge, Grant, and Davis. We also already have attracted two straight NJ AP player’s of the year in Costner and Werner.

    I know its just me and there are other guys out there, but my wish list starts with Rick Pitino. Yeah, I know its almost ridiculous to even say. He’s probably not available. But Pitino always aspires to be on the big stage. Him coming to Raleigh immediately makes the Triangle the capital of college basketball.

  9. site admin 04/02/2006 at 3:40 PM #

    What is the max packet we could configure if we had to? ball park

    We’re working on that for the coming days.

  10. sf59 04/02/2006 at 4:10 PM #

    thanks guys, look forward to it!!

  11. Sam '92 04/02/2006 at 5:21 PM #

    what a relief that sendek is gone

    doubtful that our package could be enticing to rick barnes, i just don’t think there’s enough money at state.

    but, we should be able to do pretty well — unfortunately we have to rely on lee fowler to lead the search (don’t we?)

  12. vtpackfan 04/02/2006 at 5:59 PM #

    I a press conference a few weeks ago, then Seton Hall head coach Louis Orr made 40 references to God when asked about how the team played that night. When he was fired later on all the critism from the talking heads came down on the administration for a lack of support,without mentioning what had been going on internally. Now it’s NC State and its “ludicris” fanbase that gets it loaded on publicly for railroading a succesful coach out of town. In this case the administration is barely, if ever, mentioned. They portray Raleigh as some crazy mob of anarchist that control the destiny of decent, honorable men. And lastly, Chapel Hill. When Williams took over and MD got thrown off the bridge into Jordan Lake there was nothing anyone in the media could see that would have avoided it from happening. C’est le vie.

  13. site admin 04/02/2006 at 6:03 PM #

    doubtful that our package could be enticing to rick barnes, i just don’t think there’s enough money at state.

    Not argumentative…but, what do you mean that? On what do you base that? How does Memphis have $1.5 mil per year to pay Calipari? And Arizona State whose basketball program doesn’t generate squat in revenue have $1.3 mil a year to pay Sendek?

  14. Mr O 04/02/2006 at 7:15 PM #

    I have heard Dave Glenn talk about Calipari’s deal. Is there corporate money involved there? Is it Fed Ex who is headquartered in Memphis?

  15. Mr O 04/02/2006 at 7:17 PM #

    We are in a pretty good situation no matter what a potential coach thinks of our fanbase. Our administration and most important donors have proven they will support their coach through thick and thin.

  16. Elrod 04/02/2006 at 8:32 PM #

    Anyone notice that Herb managed to stay until April 1st, thereby qualifying for half the contract payment from Capitol Broadcasting?

  17. ADS95 04/02/2006 at 8:41 PM #

    I just gotta say, having the ACTUAL contracts for view is excellent. Ends any speculation about “was there a buyout clause”, “what was his salary”, etc. etc.

    I’m curious about the written permission to seek other jobs (Section IX) and the requirement for a negotiated settlement between him, the AD, and the Chancellor. Good questions for Fowler.

    No need to speculate when the FACTS are right in front of you. Thank you!

  18. Mr O 04/02/2006 at 8:49 PM #

    Elrod: Would you stay if that got you half the contract?

  19. Frank 04/02/2006 at 8:58 PM #

    quick note on $ for a possible new coach.
    13,500 season ticket base @ $30 increase per season ticket = $405,000 additional revenue. if a big name coach was in place, more tickets would be sold creating additional revenue. this year avg attendance for acc games plus the gw and sh game was 18,200. good suppot + good money = good program. it can happen

  20. NCBP 04/02/2006 at 9:47 PM #

    thanks for the info. As Tommy B said on the radio several weeks ago, there is no doubt that the Wolfpack club can put together a package to rival anyone. I have no doubt we CAN do it, whether it will happen with this administration is the question. This hire is a career maker for Fowler, he’ll be out in a year if it doesnt work out IMHO. We need to go huge, Murphy, Dail and all the other whales will just make a new friend, the Triangle can again be college basketball’s mecca…I for one am VERY excited!

  21. charlottefan 04/02/2006 at 9:51 PM #

    Why does everyone expect Murphy,Dail and others to be a money pinata?

  22. NCBP 04/02/2006 at 11:12 PM #

    “pinata”…not even sure what you mean with your question but the way I see it is this. At every school there are folks that give large sums of money for wide and varied reasons. Sometimes that gives them access not only to high level Administrators but also coaches on a frequent and personal level. They might even become good friends…I’m sure when a coach moves on anywhere in the country some of the large donors are unhappy. I’m sure we can hire another “person of high character” that will represent us in the way we’d like to be and not only that…but actually win some games vs. our rivals and take State back to elite level nationally.

    That new coach will find large donors that want to support him, make large gifts to the school and have some type of personal relationship just like Murphy and Dail. I don’t expect anyone to beat them up nor hold them upside down to catch the money. I expect them to invest in the Univ. as long as the next guy is right for NC State for the same reasons they have in the past.

  23. CoachRexBravo 04/02/2006 at 11:43 PM #

    Hopefully the new coach gets better shoes for the team. ADIDAS are the worst basketball shoes ever.

  24. class of '74 04/03/2006 at 6:23 AM #

    Great info! Amazing how different the sports marketing compensation levels are between the sister institutions.

  25. WufPacker 04/03/2006 at 6:29 AM #

    “Anyone notice that Herb managed to stay until April 1st, thereby qualifying for half the contract payment from Capitol Broadcasting?”

    I could be wrong, but the way I read the contract with Capitol is that he “earned” (we can nitpick that one another time, LOL) the full year’s payment as of October 30, 2005, which is the anniversary of the signing of the contract. I believe the dates of Feb 1st and Apr 1st are just when the two payments are made, not dates by which he must remain employed in order to receive those payments. I could be wrong but thats the way it read to me.

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