College Coach’s Salaries: Big East

Last Updated on June 5, 2014

One conference that has been caught in the crossfire of conference realignment is the Big East.  How do salaries of coaches in the Big East compare to those of other conferences?

The data used for this analysis was obtained from reports filed by each school with the U.S. Department of Education, as required by Title IX.  These reports are the only public documentation  providing numbers for every school, because private schools are not subject to public records requests, yet have to file their data with the U.S. Department of Education.  The data reported is from the reporting year of July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.

SCHOOL	HEAD COACH AVERAGE ANNUAL INSTITUTIONAL SALARY	ASST. COACH AVERAGE ANNUAL INSTITUTIONAL SALARY
Cincinnati	Men’s:  $128,175.00	Men’s:  $97,954.00
	Women’s:  $85,190.00	Women’s:  $39,329.00
Connecticut	Men’s: $600,849.00	Men’s:  $132,491.00
	Women’s:  $268,596.00	Women’s:  $73,460.00
DePaul	Men’s:  $586,751.00	Men’s:  $80,112.00
	Women’s:  $173,189.00	Women’s:  $45,144.00
Georgetown	Men’s:  $294,161.00	Men’s:  $45,630.00
	Women’s:  $71,880.00	Women’s:  $34,405.00
Louisville	Men’s:  $778,113.00	Mens:  $142,658.00
	Women’s:  $154,254.00	Women’s:  $51,858.00
Marquette	Men’s:  $416,556.00	Men’s:  $100,287.00
	Women’s:  $153,938.00	Women’s:  $53,301.00
Notre Dame	Men’s:  $237,561.00	Men’s:  $140,938.00
	Women’s:  $172,895.00	Women’s:  $59,175.00
Pittsburgh	Men’s:  $853,324.00	Men’s:  $123,769.00
	Women’s:  $137,581.00	Women’s:  $43,333.00
Providence	Men’s:  $280,812.00	Men’s:  $79,862.00
	Women’s:  $86,108.00	Women’s:  $35,188.00
Rutgers	Men’s:  $451,926.00	Men’s:  $98,739.00
	Women’s:  $155,942.00	Women’s:  $41,620.00
St. John’s	Men’s:  $364,643.00	Men’s:  $88,901.00
	Women’s:  $102,699.00	Women’s:  $42,779.00
Seton Hall	Men’s:  $209,133.00	Men’s:  $58,694.00
	Women’s:  $96,510.00	Women’s:  $43,111.00
South Florida	Men’s:  $422,761.00	Men’s:  $105,997.00
	Women’s:  $78,275.00	Women’s:  $39,153.00
Syracuse	Men’s:  $261,016.00	Men’s:  $123,507.00
	Women’s:  $155,890.00	Women’s:  $58,234.00
Villanova	Men’s:  $334,610.00	Men’s:  $40,564.00
	Women’s:  $55,622.00	Women’s:  $21,126.00
West Virginia	Men’s:  $514,406.00	Men’s:  $150,939.00
	Women’s:  $123,092.00	Women’s:  $43,687.00

The highest average men’s sports head coaching salary is paid by Pittsburgh, while the highest average women’s sports head coaching salary is paid by Connecticut.  In 2010, Pitt men’s basketball head coach Jamie Dixon signed a new contract which made him the highest paid coach in Pennsylvania–yes, he was given a contract that paid him more than Joe Paterno.  In 2010, Dixon signed a contract extension with Pitt through the 2017-18 season.  Prior to the contract extension, he was earning around $1.6 million annually from his Pitt salary.  Geno Auriemma, the head coach of the successful Connecticut women’s basketball team, reportedly earned $1.6 million in salary last year.  Connecticut also has the highest average women’s sports assistant coaching salary.

The lowest average men’s sports head coaching salary was paid by Cincinnati.

Villanova, a private institution, is home to the lowest average women’s sports head coaching salary, as well as the lowest average men’s and women’s sports assistant coaching salaries.

Like in the Pac-12 and SEC, there is a disparity between the amount of compensation coaches of men’s sports receive and the amount of compensation coaches of women’s sports receive.  On average, men’s sports head coaches earn 3.2 times as much as their women’s sports counterparts.  Men’s sports assistant coaches earn 2.2 times as much as their women’s sports counterparts.

These numbers are lower than the disparity in the SEC.  The disparity for head coaches in the Big East is the same as that in the Pac-12, while the disparity for assistant coaches is less than that of the Pac-12.

Another interesting feature of the Big East, is that it has both football competing members and non-football competing members.  Furthermore, although Notre Dame competes in football, Notre Dame is an independent member in football.  Calculating the average salaries of football competing members and non-football competing members (not taking into consideration Notre Dame in either calculation), head coaches of men’s sports of football competing schools earn 1.4 times as much as their non-football competing school counterparts.

On Thursday, BusinessofCollegeSports.com will delve into data for the ACC.