This is in no way a scientific examination of just how reasonable college coaches get paid. So, please don't waste your breath telling me the holes in these numbers. All I am simply trying to show is how much (per win) a school is paying its head coach against how much (per win) to school is profiting off of its basketball program. Point being, some coaches (cough.....cough....Billy D.....cough......cough....Coach K) don't actually warrant the salaries they attained because their programs don't bring in the cash.
COACH SALARIES
Bob Huggins ($2 million): $64,516 per win
Mike Krzyzewski ($2.2 million): $66,666 per win
(all 666 Devil jokes should be made here)
Tom Izzo ($2 million): $71,428 per win
Bruce Pearl ($2.2 million): $78,571 per win
Thad Matta ($2.5 million): 86,206 per win
Bill Self ($3 million): $90,909 per win
Roy Williams ($2 million): $100,000 per win
Rick Pitino ($2.25 million): $112,500 per win
John Calipari ($4 million): $114,285 per win
Ben Howland ($2 million): $142,857 per win
Billy Donovan ($3.3 million): $157,142 per win
Tom Crean ($2.36 million): $236,000 per win
PROFITS
Huggins/WVU (3.67 million profit): $118,064 per win
Coach K/Duke (2.03 million LOSS): -$61,515 per win
Izzo/Mich St. (6.56 million profit): $234,285 per win
Pearl/UT (7.11 million profit): $253,928 per win
Matta/OSU (11.42 million profit): $407,857 per win
Self/Kansas (7.52 million profit): $227,878 per win
Williams/UNC (12.36 million profit): $618,000 per win
Pitino/UL (16.87 million profit): $843,000 per win
Calipari/UK (6.16 million profit): $176,000 per win
Howland/UCLA (4.78 million profit): $341,428 per win
Donovan/UF (1.90 million profit): $90,476 per win
Crean/IU (8.23 million profit): $823,000 per win
HOW MUCH A SCHOOL PROFITS/LOSES PER WIN
Louisville: +730,500 per win
Indiana: +587,000 per win
North Carolina: +518,000 per win
Ohio St: +321,651 per win
UCLA: +198,571 per win
Tennessee: +175,357 per win
Michigan St: +162,857 per win
Ohio St: +136,969 per win
Kentucky: +61,715 per win
West Virginia: +53,546 per win
Florida: -66,666 per win (hmmmm....sign of the Devil again)
Duke: -128,181 per win
Now, if you can dig through all of these numbers, you recognize a couple things:
1) The Elite schools are going to make money NO MATTER WHAT. The fact that Indiana, coming off 2 straight 10 wins or less seasons, still makes money hand over fist, proves this fact. Louisville was still the most profitable basketball program in the country this year, despite a subpar season. The same thing can be said at UNC, where attendance may have been down, but overall profit was not.
2) Kentucky is the anomaly of the bunch because of the huge salary of Coach Cal. What also adds to the lower number of profit per win the is the fact that UK spends more on its basketball program than any other school in the country, which combined with the high salary, leads to a lower profit per win total.
3) How about Duke? They LOST more money than any other basketball program in the country this season, despite Coach K being one of the 10 highest paid coaches. They are getting the last laugh in going to a Final Four, but don't look for a lot of facility upgrades at Duke. And Billy Donovan continues to regret his decision to stay at Florida, as his team is mediocre, his program makes no money, and now he is waiting for Pitino to leave Louisville, which could be as much as 7 years from now.
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