State’s highest-paid employee is UMass hoops coach

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2015/10/02/states-highest-paid-employee-is-umass-hoops-coach/

It pays to coach a Division I revenue sport.

According to the Massachusetts state employee salary database, the Bay State worker who hauled in the most earnings last year was not the governor or university president.

It was University of Massachusetts head men’s basketball coach David Kellogg.

Kellogg has a base salary of only $225,000, but his 2014 earnings topped out at more than $1.1 million thanks to a bevy of bonuses and incentives. Comparatively, UMass President Martin T. Meehan’s salary was $333,354 in 2014 while Gov. Deval Patrick made $151,800.

The bulk of those bonuses, according to CommonWealth Magazine, are for speaking engagements and weekly telecasts arranged by UMass. He receives a total of $769,000 for those appearances – paid out in quarterly installments.

Bonuses for academic performance in relation to the rest of the NCAA can reach as high as $40,000 with another $40,000 if more than 95 percent of the team graduates ($20,000 if 85 percent graduate).

On-court success triggers an even more lucrative payday. Qualifying for the exclusive March Madness championship bracket — which UMass did in 2013-14 — earns Kellogg a $75,000 bonus and $25,000 for each win thereafter.

Kellogg’s Minutemen went 17-15 last season, including a 10-8 mark and eighth place finish in the 14-team Atlantic 10 Conference.

The arrow is trending up for UMass, too, with the recent commitment of 6-foot-5 shooting guard DeJon Jarreau from New Orleans – a four-star recruit ranked 62 in ESPN’s Top 100 recruits and 39 by Rivals for 2016.

But success on the court, on the field, in the classroom and in recruiting circles aren’t necessarily requirements for college football and basketball coaches to earn a hefty payday.

The state’s second-highest salary in 2014 went to head football coach Charles Molnar, who earned $963,035 despite being fired in December of 2013 after going 2-22 in his two seasons at the helm.

The highest-paid state employee who is not a sports coach was Dr. Michael Collins, the chancellor of the UMass Medical School who made $897,000 in 2014.

The UMass basketball team did not make the March Madness bracket last year, but compared to a list of coaches who did, Kellogg’s $1,167,130 in earnings ranks 39th out of 64 (salaries for the other four qualifying schools – Brigham Young, Butler, Harvard and Hampton – were not made public).

Three of Kellogg’s Atlantic 10 rivals made the tournament – Virginia Commonwealth, Dayton and Davidson – and of the trio, only VCU’s Shaka Smart earned more money than Kellogg at $1,578,500.

Due to his team’s recent success, Smart was hired this past offseason by the University of Texas, which upped his salary to between $2.8 and $3.4 million for each of the next seven years – not including bonuses and incentives.

Contact Alex Jankowski at [email protected]