This Monday, The Cavalier Daily released its annual listing of the salaries of University employees, including athletic department staff and coaches. I find these numbers endlessly fascinating, especially when comparing how much each coach makes to his success leading the Cavaliers.
Just to clarify, a coach or staff member's salary is not precisely the amount of money they earn - it's simply the base salary that comes out of the school's pocket. Bonuses and stipends originating from the Virginia Athletic Foundation are not accounted for in these numbers.
Still, the numbers listed represent what coaches earn from your tuition money - and from you and your family's tax dollars if you live in Virginia - so I think they bear investigation.
For example, do you know who has the highest salary in all of Virginia athletics? It is not Mike London or Tony Bennett, who each make $300,000 each year. It is not even athletic director Craig Littlepage, who earns $320,000.
Nope. The Virginia coach receiving the most of your dollars is new football offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, who rakes in $475,000. Apparently NFL experience commands big bucks at middling college football programs these days.
Here is another one: Which coach provides the best payroll value? This will be a little bit subjective, of course, but I think the answer is the coach with the second lowest income of all varsity coaches. Wrestling's Steve Garland, who makes $74,000, won ACC Coach of the Year after leading his team to its first conference title in three decades and its best national finish in a half century.
The only two current head coaches who have brought team NCAA title banners to Charlottesville, Dom Starsia ($111,700) of men's lacrosse and George Gelnovatch ($112,000) of men's soccer, each make less than five other head coaches and a smorgasbord of assistant coaches.
At least they have assistants on payroll, though. Mark Bernardino ($104,000) has won a mind-melting 24 ACC Coach of the Year awards and is the only member of his coaching staff receiving money from the University. In addition, that salary is low relative to other coaches, like women's soccer coach Steve Swanson ($132,300), whose ability to be good-but-never-great is Nolan Ryan-esque, especially considering Bernardino has been around for more than 30 years and heads both the men's and women's squads.
Another way these numbers can be valuable is that they can give hints about somebody's role in, and approximate value to, the athletic department.
Consider women's basketball assistant coach Tim Taylor. Debbie Ryan introduced him as her right-hand man during the last preseason not long after his hiring. Yet, he received the title "Associate Head Coach" and a salary of $175,000. Why would the University dish out that much for another assistant, particularly one without a specified role?
I think the answer is that Taylor is the head coach-in-waiting. I am calling it now: Ryan will retire within four years and Taylor will be named the head coach either before her retirement or within a day or two of it.
But then again, considering the head-scratcher salaries of Virginia's other coaching staff, who really knows what the athletic department is thinking?
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