* The following commentary appeared in the Hotline newsletter on Monday (sign-up here) and has been updated and re-published here for readers who missed the original …
If Washington athletic director Jen Cohen isn’t the best value in the Pac-12, she’s on the top tier with … with … gimme a few days on that one.
In her two years on the job, Cohen has hired three Pac-12 Coach of the Year winners, including Mike Hopkins, and negotiated a $119 million deal with Adidas.
And now we find that Cohen isn’t merely the lowest-paid public school athletic director in the conference.
She’s also the lowest-paid public school AD in the Power Five based on department expenses.
This nugget comes via a report by Athletic Director U, whose authors reviewed the annual compensation packages of every athletic director in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.
They examined AD pay from a variety of angles, including compensation compared to department revenues and to department expenses.
The analysis makes one assumption — that the reports are true of a $900,000 annual deal for new Tennessee AD Phil Fulmer.
It goes on to conclude:
“The contract with the lowest annual guaranteed compensation relative to departmental expenses will be that of University of Washington Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen (0.48%).”
Cohen is expected to earn $520,000 in 2017-18, while Washington’s expenses for the year used in the survey (FY16) were about $110 million.
Below is the full list of Pac-12 public school AD pay for the current academic year, with UCLA’s Dan Guerrero on top.
(Guerrero was appointed in 2002 and will be the longest-serving AD in the conference, by far, when Utah’s Chris Hill retires this spring.)
As private schools, Stanford and USC are not required to provide contract terms.
Not listed but worth noting:
The average AD salary in the Big Ten, which the Pac-12 has long considered its closest peer, is $912,137, with four ADs earning seven figures annually (including Bill Moos, who jumped from Washington State to Nebraska last year.)
The average in the Pac-12 is $755,119, with only Guerrero at seven figures.
UCLA’s Dan Guerrero: $1,083,779
OSU’s Scott Barnes: $937,508
Oregon’s Rob Mullens: $814,891
ASU’s Ray Anderson: $800,000
Colorado’s Rick George: $772,418
Utah’s Chris Hill: $763,600
WSU’s Patrick Chun: $675,000
Cal’s Mike Williams: $609,000 (outgoing)
Arizona’s Dave Heeke: $575,000
Washington’s Jen Cohen: $520,000
Somebody, get Cohen a raise.
UPDATE: The Seattle Times reported Tuesday that UW president Ana Mari Cauce is planning to give Cohen a pay bump.
“There is no question (a raise is due), if you look at her salary compared to her peers,” Cauce told the Times after the Adidas deal was announced.
“She came in somewhat less tested, and that made sense. But I think it’s unquestionably time to look at a correction.”
The report added that Cohen’s new salary could approach $700,000 annually.
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