Buffalo, Become a basketball coach: LUCKIEST
Success on the court translates to big money for coachesfbs_click(){u=
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/2007-03-08-coaches-salary-cover_N.htm;t=encodeURIComponent("Success on the court translates to big money for coaches;u=encodeURIComponent");window.open('
http://www.facebook.com/share.php?&u='+u+'&t='+t+'sharer');return false;}
swapContent('firstHeader','applyHeader');<!--endclickprintexclude-->
By Steve Wieberg and Jodi Upton, USA TODAY
This is money time in college basketball. Literally.
Sixty-five coaches will lead their teams into
the NCAA Division I men's tournament next week, and one will emerge the
first Monday in April with a celebratory strand of net and a national
championship. Many more, if history holds, will cash in with new or
considerably sweetened contracts.
The coaches of six of the tournament's Elite
Eight teams a year ago parlayed their success into new deals for this
season. They'd have gone 7-for-8, but Billy Donovan of national
champion Florida chose to postpone a discussed extension.
Their raises were substantial. At the five
schools where raises are public — George Mason, LSU, Memphis, Texas and
UCLA — the coaches got a collective bump of about $1.7 million, or
about $332,000 each when they extended their contracts. With those new
agreements, and others, at least 20 of last year's 65 tournament
coaches are making $1 million or more this season, a USA TODAY study
finds. Kentucky's Tubby Smith is guaranteed nearly $2.1 million. Texas'
Rick Barnes, Ohio State's Thad Matta and Michigan State's Tom Izzo all
are pulling down more than $1.7 million.
