best paid NCAA gymnastics coaches

photo – Sarah Patterson

Only four teams have ever won the NCAA title in the 25 years of the Women’s Championships – Utah (9), Georgia (7), UCLA (5) and Alabama (4).

What do those successful programs pay their coaches?

Lya Wodraska writing in The Salt Lake Tribune just prior to NCAA Championships:

With 10 national titles, Marsden’s pay has risen from $1,500 to $154,000 a year.

As a graduate assistant in the P.E. department, Utah coach Greg Marsden was hired 31 years ago to coach the Utes’ gymnastics team for $1,500 a year, a meager salary that came with no benefits.

If his team wins the NCAA title this weekend, he’ll earn a little more than eight times that much in a bonus alone.

Marsden’s story of going from a paycheck well below the poverty level to one that is rather hefty isn’t unique, as college gymnastics is becoming more and more of a serious business for schools.

Marsden’s base salary is $154,350, making him the third-highest paid women’s college gymnastics coach in the country, behind Georgia’s Suzanne Yoculan ($189,000) and Alabama’s Sarah Patterson ($173,664).

… The rise in salaries can be attributed in part to Title IX, the federal legislation that calls for equal opportunity for males and females in education programs and activities that receive financial assistance.

The legislation is why Utah started its gymnastics program in the first place, and was used by Yoculan in 1994 to successfully barter for a higher salary.

… Yoculan has won enough, seven national titles, that her base salary plus incentives gives her a package of more than $300,000.

Salt Lake Tribune – Gymnastics: Sport’s success means money for coaches

NCAA pushing salaries up should be good for the rest of us.