Ohio coach Frank Solich would earn a $37,000 bonus if he were to lead the Bobcats to an Independence Bowl win later this month. One of the men who signed that stipulation into place, though, will pocket nothing more than the peace of mind that comes along with a program win.
Jim Schaus, Ohio director of Athletics, signed a new contract in June that guarantees him an annual salary of $247,000 through 2017, which does not include performance-based incentives.
That’s the way it should be — at least if you’re speaking with Ray Stephens, director of the Ohio Center for Professional Accountancy, who previously taught an MBA class titled “strategy implementation” at Ohio University.
Although it is commonplace for coaches and higher-end administrators to be rewarded for athletic achievement, Stephens said there is plenty of power in a simpler, more traditional salary.
“I’m not sure why somebody would incentivize an athletic director,” he said. “About his only control is making sure he is hiring coaches and making sure everybody meets NCAA requirements. If I were structuring their contracts, I would make it so I expect him to do everything right with the NCAA and have a list of coaches for when coaches leave.”
The former is written into Schaus’ contract, which vastly differs from those of some other Mid-American Conference athletic directors.
Though Schaus’ salary is in the upper echelon of MAC athletics directors, many of them have smaller base salaries and contracts laden with performance-based incentives.
Greg Christopher, who has led Bowling Green’s athletic department since September 2010, signed a new contract in August, upping his base salary to $199,232.
It is written into Christopher’s contract that he is to receive a 10-percent raise each year he remains in the position. More significant, though, are the funds he stands to receive if the athletic department hits specific benchmarks, ranging from donations to the Falcon Club to graduation-rate goals and athletic achievements.
Christopher’s contract is far from unique. Akron Director of Athletics Tom Wistrcill has bonuses as lofty as $57,500 for a NCAA Championship on the gridiron and as routine as a $1,000 gratuity for having a minimum 70-percent student-athlete graduation rate, in addition to a $225,000 guaranteed salary.
Toledo’s Mike O’Brien, who has been with the Rockets since April 2007 and has a base salary of $208,855, has 5-percent bonuses built into his deal if the football and men’s and women’s basketball teams advance to postseason play.
Schaus didn’t have an incentive-laden contract in his other director of Athletics job with Wichita State from 1999 to 2008.
Ted Ayres, Wichita State vice president and general counsel, said Wichita State directors of Athletics generally do not receive performance-based bonuses.
Stephens described contract structure as two basic schools of thought, one modeled after IBM in the 1980s and another designed after ITT Corporation.
The former was built heavily on incentives that each individual had a lot of control over — for example, a quota of sales-related calls. ITT Corporation, on the other hand, structured its managers’ salaries so that they made about 30 percent more than the market standard, Stephens said, but had many more factors beyond their control, such as budgeting and market fluctuation.
He likened the job of an athletic director to the latter mentality, recalling a conversation he had with former Kent State Director of Athletics Laing Kennedy while living in Kent and working for the university in the 1990s.
He said Kennedy viewed his position as being an eye over the athletic department, more or less, using personnel’s strengths to implement a strategy.
And when it’s all said and done, he thinks athletic directors should be incentivized for only graduation rates and having what he called a “breadth of the athletic program” — meaning, finding ways to expand its horizons to reach new recruits, programs and audiences.
“Your job is being the controller,” Stephens said. “Everything has to be consistent with NCAA regulations, right down to crossing the last ‘t’ and dotting the last ‘i.’ ”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
