Gene Bleymaier, athletics director at Boise State as its football program grew to national prominence, was let go in August in the wake of NCAA violations under his watch.
Bleymaier's contract at Boise State allowed him to earn bonuses up to 40% of his base salary of $266,116. For instance, he got a bonus equal to one month's salary if the football team won a conference championship and another if the Broncos played in a BCS bowl game. The BCS incentive of $22,176 could even be excluded from his 40% cap.
USA TODAY reviewed dozens of contracts of athletics directors at major-college football schools and found it is common for athletics directors to earn bonuses for the performances of individual teams. Higher education attorney Sheldon Steinbach calls that potentially problematic.
"Here's the question," Steinbach says. "When the athletic director's compensation is tied to the athletic achievement of his or her teams, do you have an element of the fox watching the chicken house?"
There is no way to know if the violations at Boise State were tied in any way to Bleymaier's bonuses. The violations came in a range of sports, from football to men's and women's tennis to men's and women's cross country and track and field. Boise State officials declined to answers questions about Bleymaier's contract.
Steinbach worries AD bonuses for the success of individual teams can have the appearance of a conflict. (He doesn't worry about bonuses for cumulative academic achievement or success in cumulative conference athletic standings, also common in bonus clauses such as Bleymaier's.)
"It is troubling because ultimately the president has to rely on the athletic director to supervise his or coaches to assure compliance with the highest ethical, educational and athletic standards," Steinbach says. "And if you make the athletic director's compensation potentially dependent on the success of those teams, you perhaps water down some of the supervision."
Retiring North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour doesn't worry about that: "I would say if you've got an AD you're worried about making those kinds of decisions, you probably don't have the right person in the job."
Baddour says he understands bonuses can create the perception of a problem. He says that's why he would prefer not to have such clauses in his contract, which runs until June. He makes $295,000 in base salary and can earn six bonuses of $24,583 each. One is tied to academics, another to the Learfield Sports Director's Cup standings, plus one each for football reaching a bowl game and baseball and men's and women's basketball making NCAA tournaments.
"The University of North Carolina went in that direction more because my contract came up at intervals where it was just tough in the economic climate we were in to give significant raises," Baddour says. "So they felt like a way to be responsive was to do the bonuses. My preference would be to have just a baseline salary and have it be competitive."
UCLA athletics director Dan Guerrero has several bonus clauses in his contract, but none linked to the success of individual teams. He e-mailed a statement in his role as president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, which says in part:
"Linking an athletic director's compensation directly to the performance of specific teams is a decision that rests with each individual institution. ? With rising costs to athletic departments across the country, each school must do what its central administration feels fits best into its long-term financial model."
Guerrero's statement points out schools can protect themselves "by imposing significant penalties, including termination, in the event of NCAA compliance issues."
NCAA president Mark Emmert declined to comment on the bonus issue through a spokeswoman. Washington did not include AD bonuses when Emmert was president there.
Tom Yeager, commissioner of the Colonial Athletic Association, which does not have major-college football, says some college presidents earn bonuses if SAT scores for an incoming class increase or a school's ranking by U.S. News & World Report improves.
"Look, if you sell an extra 500 generators, you get a bonus from your general sales manager," Yeager says. "I think that's kind of the way America works."
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