Reality check on the administration's supposed commitment

[TheCup]

I posted these numbers on the other board as well.

These numbers are compiled from the columns and stories by Gagliardi and Vorel...

This is what UW spending on football, generally, looked like under Dave Christensen:

$1,200,000 salary to Christensen
$1,140,000 salary for the assistants
$158,000 for recruiting
----------------
TOTAL: $2,498,000

Bohl's salary is more incentive based than Christensen's was. Under the best case scenario, where we go undefeated, we sell a huge amount of season tickets and everyone gets a 4.0 GPA, it looks like Bohl could make $1.105 million next year. This, of course, isn't going to happen. My best guess at Bohl's total earnings next year, if we go about 6-6 and we do ok with grades and season tickets, is that Bohl will probably make about $900,000.

So, this is what UW spending on football, generally, will look like under Craig Bohl:

$900,000 salary to Bohl
$1,300,000 salary for the assistants
$258,000 for recruiting
----------------
TOTAL: $2,458,000

I really don't know whether to laugh or cry. On the one hand, Burman got us a better coach, a better recruiting budget and a better assistants pool for $40,000 less than what we were paying last year (as long as we just forget about the $570k in buyout money to DC).

But on the other hand, the administration is now spewing a line of absolute horseshit to the media and all of us about Wyoming "stepping up the big leagues" and how the administration is now "both feet in" to the football program.

The numbers don't bear that out. In fact, it looks like our football spending is going to go DOWN next year - not up.

 

[Wyo2dal]

Bohl has incentives, He can potentially make upwards of 1.3 Million with a great season. He is making less base but has much better incentives.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Those numbers don't figure in the obligations for DC and Bohl's buyouts.

But yea, we need to increase our spending quite a bit more still on the assistants and recruiting side.

 

[WyoBrandX]

Wasn't Christensen's base salary 190k and Bohls base salary $750k? I think Christensen's was far more incentive based than Bohls' is .

 

[TheCup]

Bohl has incentives, He can potentially make upwards of 1.3 Million with a great season. He is making less base but has much better incentives.

If you do the math from what the university put out, the max Bohl can make next year is $1,130,000. This would require going undefeated, finishing in the Top 25, selling 10,000 season tickets and achieving a cumulative team GPA of 2.8. Frankly, I don't find that scenario likely.

When I look at these numbers, my best guess is that his take home next season is probably around $950k. That, plus the increases to recruiting and assistants, would make total football spending about $10,000 higher next year than this year.

That's not exactly "putting both feet in" if you ask me.

• Annual Base Salary: $300,000
• Additional Guaranteed Compensation: $450,000 the first year, going up $50,000 in each successive season
• Annual Incentive Compensation: $20,000 per MW victory (maximum $160,000 annually); one month’s base salary for bowl game selection or MW conference championship; $25,000 for top 25 BCS finish
• Annual Speaker and Appearance Fee: $50,000
• Annual Season Ticket Incentive: Under 5,000 season tickets sold. $0; 5,000-5,999 tickets sold, $20,000; 6,000-6,999 tickets sold, $30,000; 7,000-7,999 tickets sold, $40,000; 8,000-8,999 tickets sold, $50,000; 9,000-9,999 tickets sold, $60,000; 10,000 or more tickets sold, $70,000
• Annual Academic Incentives: Cumulative GPA below 2.5, $0; 2.5-2.69 GPA, $25,000; 2.7-2.79 GPA, $40,000; greater than 2.8 GPA, $50,000
• Monthly Housing Allowance: $750

 

[TheCup]

Wasn't Christensen's base salary 190k and Bohls base salary $750k? I think Christensen's was far more incentive based than Bohls' is .

That's a common misconception. There were no real incentives in DC's last contract. No part of his earnings were tied to performance on the field or anywhere else.

 

[TheCup]

Those numbers don't figure in the obligations for DC and Bohl's buyouts.

I don't see the increased buyout numbers as a huge risk for the university. There is virtually no likely scenario under which we would fire Bohl before he gets five years. He'd have to perform like Vic Koenning for that to happen.

 

[Wyovanian]

Bohl has incentives, He can potentially make upwards of 1.3 Million with a great season. He is making less base but has much better incentives.

Christensen's base was $190K. Bohl's will be $300K plus an additional $450K in other income guaranteed. Bohl's base is over triple Christensen's.

Like I said earlier when the talk was about Tedford, we need to guarantee $750K in order to even have the conversation with someone qualified.

 

[Wyovanian]

Those numbers don't figure in the obligations for DC and Bohl's buyouts.

I don't see the increased buyout numbers as a huge risk for the university. There is virtually no likely scenario under which we would fire Bohl before he gets five years. He'd have to perform like Vic Koenning for that to happen.

Playing extensions close to the vest as well- the opposite of what we've done in the past. The salary and incentives can go up sharply in the same period, though...

 

[TheCup]

Like I said earlier when the talk was about Tedford, we need to guarantee $750K in order to even have the conversation with someone qualified.

I don't dispute that at all. I'm glad we upped the "guarantee" in order to sell Bohl. But it won't increase the amount UW actually spends on football at all.

Dave Christensen coached last season like an absolute bum and made $1.2 million.

Craig Bohl, even if he coaches next season like Nick Saban, will make less than that.

I'm not saying Burman did a bad job selling Bohl on the job. He obviously didn't.

I'm saying we all shouldn't believe that a magic wand has been waved and that The Powers That Be at the university have suddenly committed all kinds of new dollars to football. Because they haven't.

 

[WyoBrandX]

I've been wrong before, but I'm reading the contract now from:
http://www.coacheshotseat.com/CHSWyoming.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Contract - origional
base: $180,000

Incentives

$25k for each year team finishes in the top 25
$30k for a mwc outright championship
$15k for a mwc co-championsip
$10k for each mwc win
$10k for each bowl game
$100k for a BCS bowl game

CJC

$35k Sports Broadcasting Talen Fee
$30k DJC Speaker fee
$20k Cowboy Sports Fesitval and Clinic fee
$36k Housing allowance
$25k CJC supplement
$40k Wildcatter supplement
$100k scheduling fee
Some non-conference scheduling stuff
$0 for games worth less than $400k
$50k for games at least 400k
$60k for games at least $500k
$70k if the net non-conf game is at least $600k

Cheyenne country club membership

$70k supplement for 6k season tickets sold
$20 per season ticket after $6k wont exceed $80k

 

[Wyovanian]

Like I said earlier when the talk was about Tedford, we need to guarantee $750K in order to even have the conversation with someone qualified.

I don't dispute that at all. I'm glad we upped the "guarantee" in order to sell Bohl. But it won't increase the amount UW actually spends on football at all.

Dave Christensen coached last season like an absolute bum and made $1.2 million.

Craig Bohl, even if he coaches next season like Nick Saban, will make less than that.

I'm not saying Burman did a bad job selling Bohl on the job. He obviously didn't.

I'm saying we all shouldn't believe that a magic wand has been waved and that The Powers That Be at the university have suddenly committed all kinds of new dollars to football. Because they haven't.

I fully understand your point, but it would also be naive to think that every buck's been spent (like SnowyRange seems to believe). Wyoming's financial nickname ought to be the Sandbagger State.

 

[Cowduck]

Bohl has incentives, He can potentially make upwards of 1.3 Million with a great season. He is making less base but has much better incentives.

If you do the math from what the university put out, the max Bohl can make next year is $1,130,000. This would require going undefeated, finishing in the Top 25, selling 10,000 season tickets and achieving a cumulative team GPA of 2.8. Frankly, I don't find that scenario likely.

When I look at these numbers, my best guess is that his take home next season is probably around $950k. That, plus the increases to recruiting and assistants, would make total football spending about $10,000 higher next year than this year.

That's not exactly "putting both feet in" if you ask me.

• Annual Base Salary: $300,000
• Additional Guaranteed Compensation: $450,000 the first year, going up $50,000 in each successive season
• Annual Incentive Compensation: $20,000 per MW victory (maximum $160,000 annually); one month’s base salary for bowl game selection or MW conference championship; $25,000 for top 25 BCS finish
• Annual Speaker and Appearance Fee: $50,000
• Annual Season Ticket Incentive: Under 5,000 season tickets sold. $0; 5,000-5,999 tickets sold, $20,000; 6,000-6,999 tickets sold, $30,000; 7,000-7,999 tickets sold, $40,000; 8,000-8,999 tickets sold, $50,000; 9,000-9,999 tickets sold, $60,000; 10,000 or more tickets sold, $70,000
• Annual Academic Incentives: Cumulative GPA below 2.5, $0; 2.5-2.69 GPA, $25,000; 2.7-2.79 GPA, $40,000; greater than 2.8 GPA, $50,000
• Monthly Housing Allowance: $750

I agree with what you are saying generally. But the guaranteed compensation part (which translates into the buyout number) is no small thing. It doesn't really matter if Christensen's total compensation was mostly incentives that he was guaranteed to hit and other perks, those monies didn't add to the buyout number. We just bought out four years of Christensen's contract for just over a half million dollars. If we want to buy out Bohl after one year (not likely but just saying) it will cost over three million. That cost certainty is a much bigger risk for UW and one that was necessary to ultimately seal the deal with Bohl. On the flip side (as Burman mentioned in an interview) it means that it will solve another one of your hobby horses: there will be less impetus to extend the contract after one good season because Bohl will already have a much greater portion of his salary for the successive seasons guaranteed.

I'm sure the accounting/econ guys would be able to explain it in their terms but the guaranteed compensation represents a greater present value that isn't represented in the bottom line of your equation.

Make no mistake, we still have a long ways to go in terms of recruiting budget, assistant salaries, etc. and on that much I agree with you, but the guaranteed money/buyout number in this contract is far greater than anything we've seen Wyoming shell out before and that counts for something.

 

[TheCup]

I've been wrong before, but I'm reading the contract now from:
http://www.coacheshotseat.com/CHSWyoming.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That was the original 2008 contract. The extension signed the weekend of the Temple bowl game eliminated all that language. The only real incentives in that contract were:

10 CJC appearances
12 marketing appearances
12 radio show appearances
1 appearance at discretion of the president.
Up to $25k depending on team GPA

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/trib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/2/05/2057302d-a13a-55ba-b836-e226293121a2/4f0f63b75ee6f.pdf.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[landpoke]

You forgot to add in the value of being 400 miles closer to his favorite vacation spot, which is priceless.

So in essence he's making infinity. If that ain't stepping up I don't know what is.

 

[WyoAlum1987]

Yep
That last contract with DC was a work of art by a savvy AD and
Burman is misleading us again, imagine that.

 

[SnowyRange]

Don't really understand the point of this thread.

Obviously there is no need to pay Bohl more than he'll take.

As for assistants, if there is some notion that Bohl could not hire the ones he wanted, then that's a problem. Is this true?

Same for the recruiting budget: if Bohl said that was enough for him to get his job done, then it's no problem.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

I would say the problems with this are that a report was out stating that WYO had to up the ante. Rather than up the ante, Burman appears (if Cup's numbers are right) to have pulled a smoke and mirrors approach rather than fixing the problem. In other words, a very deliberate attempt to mislead the public. That is not good leadership.

Additionally, it is possible that Bohl doesn't know exactly what it will take at WYO. Perhaps he thinks he can do it with that budget, but in 3-4 years finds out he can't. Then what? Fire him and move to the next big thing? This is where an experienced AD needs to think about the success and investment of athletics rather than trying to save money.

If it wasn't enough for Glenn or DC, it likely will not be enough for Bohl. There is no way 100% of our problems are on Glenn or DC, but Burman's approach is that he thinks it is. Simply replacing the dancing chicken doesn't do squat for depilated stage.

 

[Brew_Poke]

I would say the problems with this are that a report was out stating that WYO had to up the ante. Rather than up the ante, Burman appears (if Cup's numbers are right) to have pulled a smoke and mirrors approach rather than fixing the problem. In other words, a very deliberate attempt to mislead the public. That is not good leadership.

Additionally, it is possible that Bohl doesn't know exactly what it will take at WYO. Perhaps he thinks he can do it with that budget, but in 3-4 years finds out he can't. Then what? Fire him and move to the next big thing? This is where an experienced AD needs to think about the success and investment of athletics rather than trying to save money.

If it wasn't enough for Glenn or DC, it likely will not be enough for Bohl. There is no way 100% of our problems are on Glenn or DC, but Burman's approach is that he thinks it is. Simply replacing the dancing chicken doesn't do squat for depilated stage.

It's pretty obvious Burman thinks he can get away with this "Cowboy Tough" PR marketing lingo bullshit. You know what? It seems to be working on the vast majority of Wyoming fans. Oh well.

 

[SnowyRange]

I would say the problems with this are that a report was out stating that WYO had to up the ante. Rather than up the ante, Burman appears (if Cup's numbers are right) to have pulled a smoke and mirrors approach rather than fixing the problem. In other words, a very deliberate attempt to mislead the public. That is not good leadership.

Additionally, it is possible that Bohl doesn't know exactly what it will take at WYO. Perhaps he thinks he can do it with that budget, but in 3-4 years finds out he can't. Then what? Fire him and move to the next big thing? This is where an experienced AD needs to think about the success and investment of athletics rather than trying to save money.

If it wasn't enough for Glenn or DC, it likely will not be enough for Bohl. There is no way 100% of our problems are on Glenn or DC, but Burman's approach is that he thinks it is. Simply replacing the dancing chicken doesn't do squat for depilated stage.

Well, if neither Burman, Bohl, nor the assistants know what they want and need, then...well...I guess it's just up to the fans to set the budget, do the hiring, and tell them all what to do.