Am I the only non-college coach shocked by how high these salaries are?
There are part-time D1 coaches, whose teams are fielded solely so their institutions can sponsor NCAA basketball, who make in the (very) low five figures.
The coach at my undergrad, and my mentor I suppose, once told me that it's a wonderful profession as long as you never work out what it pays by the hour.
It 100% depends on what the individual school decides and other schools in their conference.
D1 head coach in the MAC? 70-110k
D1 head coach in the SEC? Depends which school but can be anywhere from 90k-350k
D1 head coach in a smaller conference than the MAC? Probably more like 60k-90k
Hell, I've seen D1 head coaches paid as little as 45k.
D2? Again it depends on the conference and school.
A lot of D3/NAIA head coaches are getting 40k-70k I imagine based on some positions I know about.
If we're talking assistants, every division will have positions for 5k-15k part time or as high as 60k per year full time. There's no standardized payment requirement and schools will pay as little as possible to attract a candidate.
Here's a list of all of my positions:
Volunteer D1 major conference - $0
part time assistant D1 middle of the road conference - 10k
full time assistant small conference- 28k
full time assistant small conference - 40k
head coach middle of road conference - 68k
head coach at small conference - 78k
It kind of follows a trend until it doesn't lol
Am I the only non-college coach shocked by how high these salaries are? As a head coach of a mid-sized private school track program where I have to manage successful boys and girls middle and high school teams, I make a total of $5000 for the season. I expected there to be a big jump from what I make to college for all the reasons anybody would be think of (higher level, requirement of better credentials, additional recruiting and admin responsibilities, longer seasons and year-round time committments etc), but I never thought coaches could make $50,000+ a year doing this? I assume most coaches coach because they love what they do. There's so much that one has to sacrifice to do the job, but those of us who do coach are more than happy to make those sacrifices. So a $50K salary on top of doing what I love to do actually sounds appealing.
Yeah it sounds great. As someone who coached at high school and college I can say that it is WAY more work than high school. I definitely spent a lot of time on my high school program and treated it as full time as I could, but the responsibility and general requirements of being a head coach at a college is way more work.
I'm not saying this to diminish the work of a high school coach, but it's a lot different. Recruiting itself is a heavy workload with nothing else on your plate.
Appreciate all the info thus far and I'd really appreciate if people gave more insights on their experiences or of ones they know about. I'm also wondering if your level of education and own performance in the sport has an impact on your initial career options in coaching, or is it all experience? Would a guy that's run 3:56/13:30 with a master's degree (maybe in exercise phys or sport management) be more likely to have greater opportunities in coaching or does that not have much of an impact?
Does the degree matter at all or getting a post-bachelors do anything at all?
Once again the information is really helpful and I'm hoping that I and others who are curious can gain a better understanding. Thanks.
Appreciate all the info thus far and I'd really appreciate if people gave more insights on their experiences or of ones they know about. I'm also wondering if your level of education and own performance in the sport has an impact on your initial career options in coaching, or is it all experience? Would a guy that's run 3:56/13:30 with a master's degree (maybe in exercise phys or sport management) be more likely to have greater opportunities in coaching or does that not have much of an impact?
Does the degree matter at all or getting a post-bachelors do anything at all?
Once again the information is really helpful and I'm hoping that I and others who are curious can gain a better understanding. Thanks.
Being fast will help you get jobs, but it won't make you good at them. I've seen a lot of faster runners get hired and stink, I've also seen really slow runners get hired and suck.
The nice part of the profession is that you can't fake improvement.
Appreciate all the info thus far and I'd really appreciate if people gave more insights on their experiences or of ones they know about. I'm also wondering if your level of education and own performance in the sport has an impact on your initial career options in coaching, or is it all experience? Would a guy that's run 3:56/13:30 with a master's degree (maybe in exercise phys or sport management) be more likely to have greater opportunities in coaching or does that not have much of an impact?
Does the degree matter at all or getting a post-bachelors do anything at all?
Once again the information is really helpful and I'm hoping that I and others who are curious can gain a better understanding. Thanks.
If you're going to get a Masters degree AND not make much money you're better off being a teacher.
Searchable table by position (head coach, asst, assoc), event / event group and division (including NAIA) for public schools in states that publish public employee salaries.
Looks like Rowan coach was making $87k in 2021. TCNJ coach was in the upper $70k's but most recent I could find was 2016.
They might be over 100 now but that's an expensive area.
Do any of the rich private D3's pay their coaches well?
i went to amherst college in the early 2000s and i would be surprised if the coach was paid well. the AD basically hated the xc/track teams, e.g. we had bleachers on the INSIDE of our outdoor track.. we weren't much better funded than the club teams. Hope I'm wrong and the coaches were paid well but I doubt it
Searchable table by position (head coach, asst, assoc), event / event group and division (including NAIA) for public schools in states that publish public employee salaries.
Former D3 HC (M/W XC) and Associate HC for indoor/outdoor in Northeast for 3 years. Spent 2 as asst, 2 getting Masters degree. Left for some of the reasons mentioned, specifically pay vs. hrs, among others.
One element more unique to D3 that always frustrated me was the potential for an effective coach to be a valuable asset to the bottom line of the University, yet no route for compensation for the above.
Example: our University's "golden number" was ~$17k, which was what admissions had figured out was roughly how much we netted per student/year. I inherited a team of 12 men, 6 women. In my first year we brought in 8 freshman men, 12 freshman women and retained 7 and 10 into year 2. This was entirely through just putting in the hours of recruiting, nothing terribly special.
Some oversimplified math has, in year one, ~$250k additional revenue for the school (+15 more recruits than previous avg x 17k = $255k). Regardless of how much that number actually is, the fact remains that a good D3 coach has the potential of bringing in dozens of students who wouldn't otherwise be there. These students are typically of a higher academic calendar than some of their student-athlete counterparts, typically are better behaved, and you can have one coach recruiting both men and women. Also, the cost per student for the sport is incredibly low compared to other sports (low equipment costs, fewer significant injuries, no training staff at practices/games).
I presented the info above, along with many more figures, to our President, AD and VP of Enrollment Management. They said it was wonderful info and offered me a bump to $49k. I took a job at a local company and got a $10k increase in salary year one and coach at the local HS now, which is also a lot of fun.
I miss being around those athletes, who were great kids, but it was frustrating working my tail off, knowing the value to the school, and making $20k less than our 7-13 basketball coach.
Anyone have any insights on pay differences between coaches in different divisions in the NCAA? I know head coaches at big D1 schools will be paid a pretty nice salary (assuming 100-300k at the top?), but what are D2 or D3 schools making for head and/or assistant coaches? I'm just curious as to what the pay differences are at the different levels. Would a head coach at a D2 make similar to an assistant at D1 (but the assistant still in charge of distance)? What do assistants of distance coaches make? I know there's a lot of variety but any insights at all would be great.
It 100% depends on what the individual school decides and other schools in their conference.
D1 head coach in the MAC? 70-110k
D1 head coach in the SEC? Depends which school but can be anywhere from 90k-350k
D1 head coach in a smaller conference than the MAC? Probably more like 60k-90k
Hell, I've seen D1 head coaches paid as little as 45k.
D2? Again it depends on the conference and school.
A lot of D3/NAIA head coaches are getting 40k-70k I imagine based on some positions I know about.
If we're talking assistants, every division will have positions for 5k-15k part time or as high as 60k per year full time. There's no standardized payment requirement and schools will pay as little as possible to attract a candidate.
Here's a list of all of my positions:
Volunteer D1 major conference - $0
part time assistant D1 middle of the road conference - 10k
full time assistant small conference- 28k
full time assistant small conference - 40k
head coach middle of road conference - 68k
head coach at small conference - 78k
It kind of follows a trend until it doesn't lol
And most of these figures are for all of the responsibilities of the coach. Coaching is merely an adjunct duty at the school - they also teach and perform other responsibilities for their full salary.
And most of these figures are for all of the responsibilities of the coach. Coaching is merely an adjunct duty at the school - they also teach and perform other responsibilities for their full salary.
That's true in very few cases. Most coaches who teach are teaching activity classes and that's included in their salary.
Not a super competitive or prestigious school, but I think that makes good coaches more valuable. Theoretically, they're attracting talent and boosting retention above the current standard.
Out of that recruiting class, only a few were competitive (by d3 regional standards), but the rest were good kids who wanted to run and paid their tuition bill.