No Recession for Tedford

California students and furloughed faculty will be feeling the pinch this academic year. Not so for University of California head coach, Jeff Tedford. He’s going to get $2.8 million for the upcoming football season.

Yes, the University of California system, despite its budget crises, will give Jeff Tedford $2.8 million this year. The California Memorial Stadium at UC Berkeley also has a planned $430 million makeover.

How high has Tedford’s salary climbed as of late? A 2004 press release from UC Berkeley regarding his 5-year contract states that “Coach Jeff Tedford, credited with turning around the Golden Bears’ football fortunes, will stay on at Cal under a new five-year contract that nearly doubles his base salary to $1.5 million a year, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau and Athletic Director Sandy Barbour announced at a press conference today (Monday, Dec. 6).”

In 2004 his base salary was “nearly double[d]” to $1.5 million a year”; after extending his 5-year contract, his salary’s now ballooned to $2.8 million.

Let’s not forget that California still faces a budget gap of up to $14.4 billion. And, according to USA Today, the UC Berkeley campus, which houses the Memorial Stadium, has “taken a near $150 million cut in state funding” and has imposed a series of financial cuts impacting both students and faculty.

The paper also reports that at least 25 college head football coaches will make $2 million or more this football season.

From USA Today:

USA TODAY’s latest study of compensation reveals that Tedford is one of at least 25 college head football coaches making $2 million or more this season, slightly more than double the number two years ago. The average pay for a head coach in the NCAA‘s top-level, 120-school Football Bowl Subdivision is up 28% in that time and up 46% in three years, to $1.36 million.USA TODAY’s latest study of compensation reveals that Tedford is one of at least 25 college head football coaches making $2 million or more this season, slightly more than double the number two years ago. The average pay for a head coach in the NCAA‘s top-level, 120-school Football Bowl Subdivision is up 28% in that time and up 46% in three years, to $1.36 million.

Furthermore, USA TODAY’s first comprehensive look at the salaries of assistant coaches finds many approaching and even exceeding presidents’ compensation and most eclipsing that of full professors. At the top: The $1.2 million Tennessee is paying defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, an NFL veteran who returned to college football to work for his son, head coach Lane Kiffin.

At least 66 football assistants, including more than two dozen in the Southeastern Conference, make $300,000 or more, and USA TODAY found that perks once reserved for head coaches are commonplace: multiyear and rollover deals, supplemental income from TV and radio, performance bonuses, retention bonuses, cars, complimentary tickets and country club memberships.

Tennessee’s nine assistants earn an average of more than $369,000; Texas’ better than $327,000.

Cal’s Academic Senate is apparently encouraging the athletics department to live within its means. The university “forgave $31.4 million in athletics debts in 2007, according to USA Today’s writers:

At some schools outside the football-worshiping South, tolerance is wearing thinner as education budgets grow tighter.

California’s faculty has taken aim at the university’s subsidization of athletics — $7.7 million a year ago, a projected $6 million in 2009-10 — and loans atop that to cover budget deficits. Last year’s shortfall was $5.8 million. The school lent the money. Another athletics deficit of $6.4 million is projected for this year.

Fueling emotions on the campus is the discovery that the university forgave $31.4 million in athletics debts in 2007.

Cal’s Academic Senate approved a resolution last week that, among other things, called on the chancellor to end the subsidies and draw up a plan for athletics to pay off its existing debt. The action “is not about whether or not we like athletics, nor is it about the football coach,” says computer science professor Brian Barsky, who has taught at the school for 28 years. “It is about athletics living within it means.”….

Where they were provided, USA TODAY found that the average public-school subsidy for athletics was $8.8 million.”

Check out the paper’s salary database to find how much your school pays its football coach. The embedded video tells the story of New Mexico State University Assistant Coach Mike Rutenberg.

What do you think? Should the University of California system cut student and faculty benefits while raising coach salaries?

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Bethany Stotts is a staff writer at Accuracy in Academia.