U of Kentucky track coach makes $____ per year.

I second what Aspiring Prof stated. I would venture—and several good friends are young faculty—that coaches and profs work about the same hours overall. A friend who is a lit prof hardly sees the light of day on weekends with the amount of papers he has to grade.

a pure lecturer, sure. A tenured or tenure track professor, especially at an R1 institution? gimme a break, dollars to donuts the professor puts in a greater number of hours. At a state school, probably close, at a bigtime sports program, could edge slightly towards the coach, but not by a significant amount.

Uncle Albert wrote:

Not to justify his salary, but some NCAA I college coaches work two to three times the hours that any college professor works, and are often working 6-7 days a week. Summer is not really vacation for NCAA I track and xc coaches either. I could go on.

FTFY

I know a lot of DI coaches that believe they are the hardest working, but also complain about handling coaching AND recruiting.

It's a mix.

No idea about this Kentucky dude.

What am I doing here.

In response to hours these coaches work in comparison to college professors at a similar research university, many work same or more. You don't know what you are talking about. And they have to write their own grants to fund all the work they do... I guess alternate facts are common place now.

"But a 298 percent pay increase for the same job — Kentucky track and field coach — is startling when compared with what happened in the rest of the economy between 2006 and 2016, a time span that includes a deep recession. Median pay for the average American worker increased 0.7 percent, and even workers in the 95th percentile — those making more than 95 percent of the rest of America — saw pay rise just 13 percent, according to Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute."

I'm sure all of the food service workers in the kitchens at Kentucky are making $10/hour but it's their fault or something goes one argument. It's absurd for pay to jump that high during a recession when pay was stagnant for the majority of front line workers all over this country.

$450K?

I can't speak to the professor's hours exactly, but if you are tenured, you are talking, but certainly not limited to: prep time, grading, advising, faculty committees, professional development, grant writing, research (publish or perish) as well as any community/school partnerships that frequently occur. You are also expected to be involved with the professional organizations connected with your content area on a regional and national and sometimes international level as well. That sure seems pretty time intensive.

I can speak to a coaches schedule. Even those with full staffs as permitted by the NCAA routinely put in close to 100 hour weeks quite frequently during the school year. If you are the Director or Head Coach of all 3 sports (CC, Indoor, Outdoor) you are in season the entire school year. That means you are overseeing the following: training your event group(s), recruiting (which has multi year layers), eligibility, travel, fundraising, the assistant coaches, graduation rates, NCAA rules regarding everything you do, community relations, alum relations, professional development etc. Of course the great coaches effectively delegate many tasks, but they still have to oversee the entire operation and that is very time consuming. Coaches at the top of the NCAA standings are expected to remain there or they won't continue to make the kind of money that Coach Floreal, Henry etc. make. As another posted stated, prior to Coach Floreal arriving, UK wasn't that big on the national scene and now they are very prominent. In looking at their current roster, UK has what appears to be 68 people on their rosters total. If they are at the NCAA limits for both genders, that makes 37.4 students who are not getting any athletic aid. I would predict that many of them are on academic or need based aid, but even with that, you are looking at a significat influx of $$ to the university's general funds. Add that to the fact that people who graduate with an athletic affiliation tend to be bigger donors and it's a pretty nice situation for the school. Given all that, one could say that the track and field coaches are somewhat underpaid since they are the primary recruiters of the athletes to the school in nearly every case.

ComeOnChief wrote:

He also coached a world record this year and signed one of the most marketable young athletes in the world. No one gave a crap about Kentucky Track until he got there. Worth it.

No one gives a crap about Kentucky Track now.

I know a terrible DIII coach who finishes last every year in a bad conference who makes almost 100k. 250k+ for a good DI coach seems reasonable.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

ComeOnChief wrote:

He also coached a world record this year and signed one of the most marketable young athletes in the world. No one gave a crap about Kentucky Track until he got there. Worth it.

No one gives a crap about Kentucky Track now.

Exactly. You know Kentucky track costs the school $2 million+ and brings in, what, some free shoes? For all the complaining we do about track not getting any respect in college, it really is a giant drain on most departments.

Google it. They have the salaries on there.

Maybe a time the big time D1 level, but at the D2 and D3 level Track is hugely profitable. I'm a D3 Head Coach, I make $35K per year and my assistant pool is about $20K total. My budget for the men's and women's program combined is $90K, and we have a roster of 85 student-athletes - none of which are on athletic scholarship. Many of these student-athletes would not be at our school if it wasn't for our T&F program.

Ha ha - if you think that's funny, you should check out the highest paid state employees by state. Hi-larious!

FightFor15 wrote:

"But a 298 percent pay increase for the same job — Kentucky track and field coach — is startling when compared with what happened in the rest of the economy between 2006 and 2016, a time span that includes a deep recession. Median pay for the average American worker increased 0.7 percent, and even workers in the 95th percentile — those making more than 95 percent of the rest of America — saw pay rise just 13 percent, according to Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute."

I'm sure all of the food service workers in the kitchens at Kentucky are making $10/hour but it's their fault or something goes one argument. It's absurd for pay to jump that high during a recession when pay was stagnant for the majority of front line workers all over this country.

Keep in mind these high paying coaching jobs are in the significant minority. I have a colleague who has been coaching for well over 10 years now & has gradually worked himself up to be an assistant at a Power 5 for a few years now...still hadn't cracked the 40k/year mark. When you factor in hours worked, that's well under minimum wage in his state.

That was way higher than I expected. TV money has really changed the game for college athletics. Almost every conference, and some individual schools, have their own network.

I live in Indiana, so I was curious what Helmer made. A simple google search revealed that he makes about $180,000.

http://interactives.indystar.com/news/standing/salarydatabase/

I encourage you to do the same in your state.

Hey D3 coach. Your JV, you are lucky to have a job bay sitting less talented student athletes.

Robert Johnson, Oregon salary

PDF]Employment Agreement - Public Records - University of Oregon

Mr. Obvious wrote:

No one gives a crap about Kentucky Track now.

No kidding...it's Wildcat basketball that people give a "stink" about. I would bet that the vast majority of college sports fans can name the head basketball coach at Kentucky & that less than 0.001% could name the track coach 😁.

About a hundred dollars