U of Kentucky track coach makes $____ per year.

Stinky wrote:

Disgusting...a college track coach making $429,000 a year! ☹. At least the football & basketball head coaches are expected to win and will be shown the door if they "stink" up the joint for too long. The low expectation of winning & low job stress of a "track coach" being paid that kind of dough is ridiculous 😕. Most college sports fans can name the head football coaches of Bama, Michigan, Ohio St., etc. Less than 0.001% would know the names of the track coaches at these schools.

Very low stress. Sure. Idiot.

D3 Coach wrote:

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.

When a college in my hometown went up a division in the NCAA I thought they were crazy. Then I saw the numbers. Even with partial scholarships the students are paying a boat load of money and schools can make money off of them. But often that is not reflected in the athletic department budget. Basically the sports programs are part of the marketing and admissions missions.

Someone post links to coaches salaries. What do you put in the search engine that is most effective for finding said info?

I guessed 420k so I almost got it

429k is ridiculous, but compared to football coaches, it's still way behind

Stressed out of my mind wrote:

Stinky wrote:

Disgusting...a college track coach making $429,000 a year! ☹. At least the football & basketball head coaches are expected to win and will be shown the door if they "stink" up the joint for too long. The low expectation of winning & low job stress of a "track coach" being paid that kind of dough is ridiculous 😕. Most college sports fans can name the head football coaches of Bama, Michigan, Ohio St., etc. Less than 0.001% would know the names of the track coaches at these schools.

Very low stress. Sure. Idiot.

You're the idiot. Why don't you do some research before posting your stupid one liners 😄. These track coaches can hang around for forever. There's no pressure for them to win big time like there is with the D-1 football & basketball coaches. There's no pressure for these track coaches to face the media, boosters, alumni, etc. as to why the team isn't winning.

When was the last time a track coach got fired specifically for the team's lack of performance? Look at Les Miles last year at LSU. Fired in the month of September after a 2-2 record. Here's a guy with a 114-34 record and a freak'in National Championship! And basketball coach Mark Gottfried of NC St. was just fired after compiling a .580 winning percentage and 4 NCAA tournament appearances in 6 yrs!

$429,000 salary for a college coaching job that's not under pressure to win...ya right.

It is the head coach of 6 sports, mens xc, indoor, outdoor, women's xc, indoor, outdoor.

Does basketball coach coach both genders? soccer? golf? same game.

But I do say the real money should go to the D3 coaches because they bring hard tuition dollars to their institution.

Call it what it is...charity. If you really want to examine "worth", just figure out if the sport could support itself. Probably not even Oregon could have the program they have only on the revenue generated by T&F.

T&F gets no respect.

................. wrote:

Does basketball coach coach both genders? soccer? golf? same game.

No...but a D-1 basketball coach has to win now, and win often, or it's hasta la vista...see the Gottfried firing at NC St.

And what do you think would happen if John Calipari had two back to back mediocre seasons at UK, e.g., no NCAA tournament bid? 🤔

On top of school salary, I know of D1 coaches that get money from the shoe companies that their programs have contracts with. About $15,000 $40,000 annually. Not 'living off of' money, but a nice bump to the bank account.

A Florida Coach wrote:

A head track coach is also, as some even use in their official titles, a Director of Track Operations. Not only do you coach, teach, and possibly conduct research, you're running at a D1 school a decent-sized and diverse department of people. You're also responsible for sizable facilities and with far less of a staff than football or basketball get to run their facilities. So you're nearly like an AD for your own sports. I think the money is perfectly reasonable.

A DI coach in a power conference likely is not teaching or doing research. They really are just coaching and running the program. Still a huge job, but the trend of coaches not teaching has been shifting for the last 20-30 years. Except for coaches at many NAIA programs and JuCos, hardly any coaches teach anymore.

But I reiterate: It's a huge job. I coach and I make less than 1/10 what Coach Floreal makes. But I don't protest whatsoever when I hear what he makes.

Stinky wrote:

................. wrote:

Does basketball coach coach both genders? soccer? golf? same game.

No...but a D-1 basketball coach has to win now, and win often, or it's hasta la vista...see the Gottfried firing at NC St.

And what do you think would happen if John Calipari had two back to back mediocre seasons at UK, e.g., no NCAA tournament bid? 🤔

Calipari - would likely be on thin ice but if he did get dropped, he would get a very nice payout in the millions of $. And be coaching somewhere else the very next year.

However, lots of Div 1 B'Ball coaches don't have that same pressure to win that the high profile programs do. Otherwise you would have nearly 50% a year turnover. That and there are very few D1 head BB/FB jobs that pay less than what the U Kent coach makes and many that get paid a lot more

That amount likely put UK as one of the highest paid track coaches in America. I suspect that for that money, UK demands success - and they have produced at both the NCAA level and in the international ranks once the athletes have left. So to apply the one size fits all approach to an outlier is pretty weak.

The contracts for the vast majority of track coaches are tenuous at best and turnover significant. Maybe not at the level of BB/FB but they also get paid a ton less too. And remember leaving even if to get another job, esp if you have a family, likely involves significant upheaval to both you and your family - so to call the job stress free is silly.

Every single coach, no matter what division should rejoice that track coaches are finally getting paid better. This only helps the sport and will positively affect every track coach at some point in time. Look what has happened with football assistant salaries. Once one school starts paying more, another one will match that. I believe over time DI track coaches salaries will improve because of what is happening at places like Kentucky. I work in a mid-major conference and I have seen salaries start to rise and coaches actually getting contracts which 10 years ago was almost unheard of. Lets be happy that coaches in our sport are finally starting to get paid better.

I'm not surprised. Back in about 2006 I had an athlete at a major D1 Track school, the coach who recruited him retired in this kid's sophomore year.

He called me and said that if I wanted the job it was mine- $90k to run the XC, Indoor and Outdoor programs.

I'm fine where I am- financially and other wise and I have free time at my current job.

BS wrote:

Calipari - would likely be on thin ice but if he did get dropped, he would get a very nice payout in the millions of $. And be coaching somewhere else the very next year.

However, lots of Div 1 B'Ball coaches don't have that same pressure to win that the high profile programs do. Otherwise you would have nearly 50% a year turnover. That and there are very few D1 head BB/FB jobs that pay less than what the U Kent coach makes and many that get paid a lot more

I think after two back to back mediocre seasons and no March Madness Calipari would be shown the door, unless there were extenuating circumstances along the lines of something like his starting 5 being injured for most of the season. And he may be coaching somewhere else the next year, but I doubt it be at a high-profile basketball program.

And you're right...lots of D-1 basketball coaches don’t have the same pressure to win as the high-profile programs have. However, it's a completely different game with D-1 football, the prime revenue making sport at most colleges. Look no further than Kansas "football." Four (4) head coaches since 2010, and Beaty not looking good going into his 3rd season with a 2-22 record. Coaches at KU football, since 2010, are averaging about 3 yrs before being shown the door (I thought basketball only mattered at Lawrence 😁). Talk about job stress if you take the helm at KU football.

I'm sure D-1 track coaches work very hard, are dedicated, have pride in their job, etc., but no way do they face the same job stress in terms of pressure to win as D-1 football coaches have..at any program.

D-1 track coaches are in a no pressure to win, non-revenue making sport. And many of them have been around forever...job security at it's finest.

Love letsrun posters. So not even 10 years ago, we are all complaining how little track coaches make. People get slammed for taking volunteer jobs all the time because it diminishes the value of the profession. Now, a few, and I do mean a FEW are getting paid pretty well, and we are asking "is a track coach worth it?"

Let's not overstate what we do for a living, We're not building rockets. But we are impacting lives (for good or for worse) and helping kids try and reach their dreams, while hopefully teaching them lessons along the way. Is it a glamorous job? At some levels yes, mostly no. Do we have really cool jobs that let us do some pretty awesome stuff from time to time? Yeah.

Glad to see the salary pool being raised for coaches. But don't think that for half a second that if you're getting paid a bunch of money, there aren't expectations.

Go out and get yours if you can people.

Re Kansas football

Not sure changing coaches that often is what is going to build a program in football. In basketball you can turnover the roster very quickly and gets players that fit your style.

In football that is much much harder.

Gotta have continuity IMHO. In the early days of a coach's tenure an AD should be looking not just at wins but at progress. At a place like Kansas that has had few winning seasons it is going to take longer. Alabama can survive a few bad HC hires because it has more tradition than anyone other than maybe Notre Dame.

Hiring a HC in any sport is largely a crap shoot IMO. The skill set to be a HC is different than being an assistant.

The gig with Kansas football is that they've only won "4" Big-12 conference games in the last 7 seasons! Not good - this ain't the SEC or Big-10 conference for crying out loud. And it probably doesn't help that 77 yr old Bill Snyder is winning big time down the road at Kansas St.

I wonder if the Kansas track coach is under the same pressure to win track meets 🤔

I don't know how hard he worked, but in the eighties I'd see Dillinger at some dive bar west of campus drinking beer and smoking. I'd also see him at Hayward with his arms folded. (This was back when somebody's and nobody's might be doing workouts at the same time, BTW I was a nobody.)

Stinky wrote:

The gig with Kansas football is that they've only won "4" Big-12 conference games in the last 7 seasons! Not good - this ain't the SEC or Big-10 conference for crying out loud. And it probably doesn't help that 77 yr old Bill Snyder is winning big time down the road at Kansas St.

I wonder if the Kansas track coach is under the same pressure to win track meets 🤔

In state rival doing well is never good for the coach on the short-end. See Auburn.