Newly appointed head football coach Bob Davie will make at least $4.5 million during his six-year term at UNM.
Davie will earn a base salary of $300,000, plus $200,000 for television and radio appearances, $100,000 for marketing and $100,000 for shoes and endorsement deals every year, according to his term sheet. He also gets access to a courtesy car and a free membership at an unspecified country club.
Faculty Senate President-elect Amy Neel served on the committee that selected Davie as the next head football coach, and said athletics spends way too much.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that we have gotten to the place in sports where we are spending outrageous sums of money on a game,” she said. “Looking at the financial situation in New Mexico, (Davie) is one of the highest-paid people.”
Davie’s contract is nearly identical to that of former head coach Mike Locksley, with a few exceptions. Locksley received two courtesy cars and $50,000 more per year for marketing, but after Davie’s second year as head coach, and for the remainder of his contract, he will receive $760,000 per season — $10,000 more per season than Locksley.
Davie also has several incentives added to his contract. If the Lobos win the MWC, Davie will receive a $50,000 bonus. Davie will earn a $10,000 bonus if the Lobos win against a top-25 team or if the Lobos are ranked in the top 25 at any point during their season. He will receive a $20,000 bonus if the Lobos play in a bowl game.
His contract also includes incentives related to game attendance.
If, at the end of the season, the average paid attendance of each game is more than 19,000 people, Davie will receive an extra $25,000, and if average per-game attendance is more than 21,000, Davie gets a $50,000 bonus.
The average yearly pay for a college football coach in the United States is around $1.5 million, so Davie’s salary is not excessive when compared with college football coaches around the country.
“I think it’s unfortunate that college sports has come to such a level of money worshiping and being driven by television money that we do have to pay coaches so much money, but considering what the circumstances around the country are today, it’s not outrageous what we are paying coach Davie,” Neel said.
Of the eight teams that played in the MWC this season, seven of their head coaches were paid more than what Davie will receive next year, according to USA Today.
Texas Christian University’s head coach Gary Patterson makes $2,018,362 per season, while Boise State’s head coach Chris Petersen makes $1,525,000 per year. At the bottom of the list was University of Nevada Las-Vegas’ head coach Bobby Hauck, who makes $501,100 per season.
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Michael Oriard, an English professor at Oregon State University who has extensively studied and published research on college football coaches’ pay, said what UNM is paying Davie is normal.
The Lobos have gone 1-11 in the past three seasons and Oriard said UNM has a tough decision to make: If UNM wants a winning team, it’s going to have to pay extra for a coach who knows how to win.
“If you’re not willing to pay that much, you have to work down the candidate pool to someone who is willing to take a lesser amount,” he said. “By investing more, do you have a better chance of being successful, and if you’re successful, do you have a chance of increasing your revenue? UNM is a very typical university facing that dilemma these days.”
UNM is projected to make just $1.3 million from football ticket sales for the 2011 season, down $800,000 from the average $2.1 million it typically makes per year.
