College Coaches Top Public Employee Salary Lists in 40 of 50 States, Including CT

When UConn announced the hiring of Bob Diaco as new head football coach earlier this month few flinched at the compensation – a reported five-year $8 million contract.

Diaco, who served on the Notre Dame coaching staff as the defensive coordinator for the past four years and the assistant head coach for the past two, was the 2012 winner of the Frank Broyles Award, given to the top assistant college football coach in the country and was the first Irish assistant to receive the prestigious award.

Earlier this year, the Yankee Institute for Public Policy compiled a list of the highest paid state employees, and three UConn coaches led the list:

• Calhoun, James A., Men's Basketball Head Coach, UConn $2,865,769
• Auriemma, Geno, Women's Basketball Head Coach, UConn $1,829,052
• Pasqualoni, Paul L., Football Head Coach, UConn $1,613,920 (former coach)
  

As it turns out, that is not unusual.  According to data compiled by the website Deadspin, the ranks of the highest-paid active public employees in states across the country include 27 football coaches, 13 basketball coaches, one hockey coach, and 10 well, 10 state employees with responsibilities outside of athletics.  That’s 80 percent of the states with a salary roster led by a coach. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the states of New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are among those where a college president, law school dean medical school dean or department chair top the state employee salary list.  In Rhode Island, it is the men’s basketball coach, and in Connecticut, with the retirement of Jim Calhoun, the leader is now women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma.

The website reports that “looking at data from 2011-2012, athletic departments at 99 major schools lost an average of $5 million once you take out revenue generated from "student fees" and "university subsidies.”