Tressel contract loaded with extras

By Ken Gordon

The Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

When Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel leaves for work every morning, he drives a car provided free of charge by the university.

When he’s done working, he can drive over to catch a men’s basketball game, using one of four season tickets OSU gives him every year.

Or he can head over to Scioto Country Club, where Ohio State pays his annual membership dues.

If he really needs to get away, he can summon a private plane. OSU provides him personal use of a private plane for up to 20 hours a year.

The basic terms of Tressel’s contract are well-known — he will earn $3.472 million this year in a combination of base salary ($627,000), media responsibilities ($1.375 million), apparel contracts ($1.02 million) and an annual bonus ($450,000).

Those figures will rise to a total of $3.727 million in the final three years of his deal, which was recently extended through the 2014 season.

But Tressel’s deal is worth significantly more than that, considering the value of his benefits and perks.

Throw in things such as an annual payment to a retirement fund ($40,000), the use of 40 tickets for each home football game (valued at $14,560), cars for him and his wife ($21,240), the country club membership ($9,796) and use of the plane ($100,000), and the total value of Tressel’s 2010 contract tops $4.1 million.

This is hardly unique. The salary and perks are typical for big-time college football coaches these days.

Last season, at least 25 coaches earned more than $2 million. Mack Brown of Texas signed a deal in December that starts at $5.1 million next season and goes up from there.

“It’s all market-driven,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “For where we are, and compared to our peers, it’s just the business.”

And business is booming. The Ohio State football program generated $68.2 million in revenue in 2008. It’s by far the biggest moneymaker for the school’s $118 million athletic department budget.

As at many other big-time football schools, OSU’s athletic budget is not taxpayer-supported but completely self-sufficient. At Florida, for example, the department is supported by the non-profit Florida Athletic Association, which is independent from much university oversight.

Last year, it reported $105 million in revenue and paid out more than $24 million in salaries.

In addition to so much cash, schools lavish all sorts of perks on coaches. Compared with those of some of his peers, Tressel’s extras are modest.

Brown, for example, reportedly is paid $120,000 a year for being chairman of the board at the university-owned golf course. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is allowed 45 hours of private-plane use a year.

Brown also can earn up to $650,000 a year in performance bonuses for achievements such as winning a conference title or playing in the national championship game.

Tressel’s bonuses, by comparison, include just one that involves football: $200,000 for playing in a national title game. There are some academic incentives in his contract, and he has stipulated that any money he earns from those will go to a university endowment fund or construction fund of his choosing.

Tressel has given back hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2003, both to OSU and to his previous employer, Youngstown State. He and his wife, Ellen, were co-chairs of the recent Ohio State library renovation campaign, and all proceeds of his book The Winner’s Manual went to the library, as well.

Though he doesn’t want to accept less than market value for his position, Tressel has always been a bit embarrassed about what he makes.

“From a financial standpoint, I didn’t apply for [the OSU job] for that reason,” said Tressel, entering his 10th year at the school. “I applied for it for the challenge and what I hoped the impact would be if we did it well.

“And then when the financial comes along with it, I just hope I’m a good steward of those blessings.”