How Much Do NCAA Basketball Coaches Make?
Contents
- Salaries of NCAA Basketball coaches
- How much do NCAA Basketball coaches make?
- The top 10 highest-paid NCAA Basketball coaches
- The lowest-paid NCAA Basketball coaches
- How bonuses and incentives affect NCAA basketball coach salaries
- How experience affects NCAA basketball coach salaries
- How coaching records affect NCAA basketball coach salaries
- How winning championships affects NCAA Basketball Coach salaries
- How conference affiliation affects NCAA basketball coach salaries
- How school size affects NCAA Basketball coach salaries
We all know that college basketball coaches make a lot of money. But just how much do they make? We did some research and found out the answer.
Salaries of NCAA Basketball coaches
The salaries of NCAA Basketball coaches vary depending on the school they coach for and their experience. The average salary for an NCAA Division I basketball Head Coach is $2 million a year, while the average salary for an NCAA Division II basketball head coach is $160,000 a year.
The highest-paid NCAA basketball coach is Duke University’s Mike Krzyzewski who makes $9.7 million a year. The lowest-paid NCAA head basketball coach is Prairie View A&M University’s Byron Smith, who makes $38,000 a year.
How much do NCAA Basketball coaches make?
This is a difficult question to answer because there is wide variation in the salaries of NCAA basketball coaches.
Some public school coaches make as little as $30,000 per year, while private school coaches can make upwards of $2 million per year.
There are also a number of factors that can affect a coach’s salary, such as the size and budget of the school, the coach’s experience and success, and the conference in which the school competes.
The top 10 highest-paid NCAA Basketball coaches
In order to find out how much NCAA Basketball coaches make, we consulted USA Today Sports’ annual Coaches Salary Database. The database covers coaching salaries at more than 100 schools in Division I of the NCAA. Here are the 10 highest-paid coaches in college basketball as of the 2019-20 season
1. John Calipari Kentucky: $8,158,000
2. Bill Self, Kansas: $4,960,733
3. Chris Beard, Texas Tech $4,845,000
4. Tom Izzo, Michigan State $4,784,284
5. Bruce Pearl Auburn: $4,775,000
6. Mike Krzyzewski Duke: $4,738,462
7. Roy Williams North Carolina $3,985,450
8. Kelvin Sampson Houston: $3,825,912
9. Rick Barnes, Tennessee: $3,772
The lowest-paid NCAA Basketball coaches
In order to understand how much NCAA Basketball coaches make, one first needs to break down the data by different NCAA divisions. In general, the lower the division, the lower the salary. For example, the average salary for an NCAA Division I coach is $2 million per year, while the average salary for an NCAA Division III coach is only $60,000 per year.
The lowest-paid NCAA Basketball coaches are typically those who coach at small schools or at schools that do not have a large budget for their athletic programs For example, the Head Coach of men’s basketball at Northeast Alabama Community College only makes $15,000 per year.
There are also some head coaches who choose to forego a salary in order to save money for their program. For example, Duke University’s men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski does not take a salary from his school; instead, he donates his entire $8 million annual salary to Duke’s charities and other programs.
How bonuses and incentives affect NCAA basketball coach salaries
In order to understand how much NCAA Basketball Coaches make, it is important to consider bonuses and incentives that are often a part of their salaries. These can include such things as win bonuses, conference titles, and NCAA appearances. While some coaches may receive base salaries that are lower than those in the NBA or other professional leagues, their total earnings can be much higher when these other forms of compensation are taken into account.
For example, Duke Head coach Mike Krzyzewski earned a base salary of $7.3 million in 2019, but with bonuses and incentives, his total earnings for the year were $9.7 million. Similarly, Kentucky head coach John Calipari earned a base salary of $8 million in 2019, but his total earnings for the year were $9.3 million when bonuses were included.
In general, the higher a coach’s salary is to begin with, the more they stand to earn in bonuses and incentives. However, even coaches with relatively low base salaries can see their earnings increase significantly when these other forms of compensation are taken into account.
How experience affects NCAA basketball coach salaries
The average salary for an NCAA Division I basketball coach is $2 million. However, there is a wide range of salaries, from under $400,000 to over $4 million per year. The variation in salaries is due to a number of factors, including the coach’s experience, the conference the team is in, and the team’s success.
Head coaches at major programs tend to make the most money. For example, John Calipari of Kentucky makes $9 million per year, while Jay Wright of Villanova makes $7 million per year. These coaches have been at their programs for many years and have had great success, which has led to big contracts.
Coaches who are new to their programs or who are in lower-tier conferences usually make less money. For example, Frank Martin of South Carolina makes $3 million per year, while Chris Beard of Texas Tech makes $2.5 million per year. These coaches are still building their resumes and have not yet had the same level of success as the more experienced coaches.
The vast majority of NCAA Basketball coaches make between $1 million and $3 million per year. This group includes both established coaches with good records and up-and-coming coaches who have yet to achieve consistent success. These salaries are enough to attract and retain good coaching talent, but are not so high that they become a financial burden for the school.
How coaching records affect NCAA basketball coach salaries
Comparing the salaries of NCAA Basketball coaches is difficult because of the wide range in pay and the fact that some coaches are paid by their school, while others are paid by outside sources, like television networks or shoe companies. However, one thing that does affect how much a coach is paid is their record. A coach with a winning record is more likely to be paid more than a coach with a losing record.
How winning championships affects NCAA Basketball Coach salaries
How much do NCAA Basketball coaches make? Winning championships definitely has its perks--just ask Duke men’s head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. In 2017, Coach K was the highest-paid College Basketball coach with a salary of $7.3 million, which is more than double the average salary of $2.5 million for all Division I head coaches, according to USA Today Sports’ annual coaching compensation database.
Not all coaches are so lucky, though. While coaching at a big-name school or winning championships can lead to a bigger paycheck, many NCAA Basketball coaches are paid relatively modest salaries. In fact, almost half of all Division I head coaches earn less than $1 million per year.
So what factors affect how much college basketball coaches are paid? Here are a few:
-The size of the school’s athletics budget: The bigger the athletics budget, the more money there is to go around--including for the Coaching Staff For example, Duke has an athletics budget of $39 million while Appalachian State has a budget of just $13 million. Not surprisingly, Duke can afford to pay its coach nearly six times more than Appalachian State can.
-The conference the school is in: Schools in power conferences like the ACC or SEC can usually afford to pay their coaches more than schools in non-power conferences like the Atlantic 10 or Conference USA This is because schools in power conferences tend to generate more revenue from things like television contracts and ticket sales
-The amount of money generated by the Basketball Program The more money a program generates, the more it can afford to pay its coach. This is usually directly related to how successful the team is--winning teams tend to generate more revenue from things like ticket sales and merchandise sales than losing teams do.
How conference affiliation affects NCAA basketball coach salaries
The average NCAA Division I Basketball Coach earned $1.36 million in 2019, according to USA Today. That’s up from $1.15 million in 2013 and $857,000 in 2008, when the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee began releasing this information to the public. But how does conference affiliation affect a coach’s salary?
For the 2019-20 season, the average salary for an NCAA Division I men’s basketball coach was $2,267,649, according to USA Today. That figure includes all conferences except for the Ivy League and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), which do not release their coaches’ salaries publicly. The average salary among Ivy League coaches was $1,095,083 in 2019-20, while the ACC average was $2,686,667.
The 10 highest-paid coaches in College Basketball all come from either the SEC or the Big Ten The highest-paid coach in the sport is Kentucky’s John Calipari who made $8 million in 2019-20. He is followed by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski ($7.3 million) and Louisville’s Rick Pitino ($7 million).
The highest-paid coach in any other conference is Jay Wright of Villanova, who made $4 million in 2019-20. Among mid-major conferences, Wright is followed by Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall ($3.4 million) and Gonzaga’s Mark Few ($3 million).
How school size affects NCAA Basketball coach salaries
As the college Basketball season comes to a close, many fans’ attention turns to March Madness and the NCAA tournament But how much do the coaches of these teams make? It turns out that there is a wide range in salaries, and that it largely depends on the size of the school.
According to a USA Today report, the median salary for Division I Basketball Coaches is $1.36 million per year. However, this number can be misleading, as it includes both very high and very low salaries. The coach of Duke University Mike Krzyzewski, is the highest-paid NCAA Basketball Coach with a salary of $7.3 million per year. On the other end of the spectrum is Stony Brook University, whose coach earns just $63,600 per year.
There is a clear correlation between school size and Coach Salary the larger the school, the higher the salary. This makes sense when you consider that larger schools generally have bigger budgets and can therefore afford to pay their coaches more. It also explains why some small schools choose to hire assistant coaches with more experience instead of head coaches: they simply can’t afford to pay head coaching salaries.
So if you’re ever wondering how much your favorite NCAA basketball coach makes, remember that it largely depends on how big their school is.