As the Iona College men’s basketball team prepares for a fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament, the Marist team takes a losing record into the offseason for the 11th consecutive year.
The differences between the haves and have-nots in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference are broad. So are the differences in the compensation for its coaches.
While some of the league’s highest-paid coaches in the league lead some of its best teams, some of its lowest-paid coaches lead some of the worst.
Marist during the 2016-17 season, in which it finished 8-24, paid its coach less than half as much as the league’s highest-paid coach.
An analysis of coach compensations throughout the MAAC and the country for that season illustrates a stark disparity between programs. The USA Today Network compared the compensation using the most recent publicly available tax filings from each school.
Marist in 2016-17 paid coach Mike Maker $233,519 in base salary and $48,409 in other compensation. Maker was in his third season, after joining a program that had endured six consecutive losing campaignsunder two different coaches.
Iona’s Tim Cluess in 2016-17 set the pace for all the league’s coaches, earning a base salary of $550,432, with $18,437 in other compensation.
Maker was replaced after least season, andMarist lured coach John Dunne away from Saint Peter’s soon after. While the terms of Dunne’s contract are not known, and Marist has declined to offer details in the past, he was paid a base salary of $219,375, with $15,016 in other compensation, by Saint Peter's in 2016-17.
Looking around the MAAC
Cluess may no longer be the league’s top earner.
Former Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore had a base salary of $497,944 in 2016-17, with $51,615 in other compensation. While second-year Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy’s salary is not known, when the former Villanova assistant was hired in 2017 there were reports that the school was willing to pay more than $700,000, which would make him the highest paid coach in the league.
At Monmouth University, the school is spending big bucks on head coach King Rice. The programwon 55 games over two seasons (2015-17), including six wins over high-major teams, and paid Ricea base salary of $446,448 during the 2016-17 school year. Another$53,134 in estimated other compensation brought his total compensation to $499,982.
Fairfield’s Sydney Johnson, the former head coach at Princeton, had a base salary of $503,353, along with $65,230 in other compensation. Manhattan’s Steve Masiello had a base salary of $389,383, with $43,806 in other compensation
Jamion Christian is in his first season at Siena, with his salary unknown. But former coach Jimmy Patsos had a base salary of $412,571 in 2016-17, with $43,092 in estimated other compensation. Christian had been making $200,000 at Mount St. Mary’s, who he took to a pair of NCAA Tournaments.
Rider’s Kevin Baggett had a base salary of $226,818, with $34,111 in other compensation, while former Canisius coach Jim Baron had a base salary of $187,489 for his final season, with another $20,590 in other compensation. Baron retired and has been replaced by Reggie Witherspoon. Niagara’s Chris Casey had a base salary of $178,529, with $28,714 in estimated other compensation.
Stepping in for Dunn at Saint Peter’s was former Seton Hall assistant Shaheen Holloway, whose salary is unknown.
Marist, Canisius, Niagara and Rider were all among the bottom six teams in the 11-team league for the 2016-17 season, while Monmouth, Iona, Siena and Fairfield were in the top five.
Who are the top earners?
Mike Krzyzewski at Duke leads the way nationally at just under $9 million in total yearly compensation. John Calipari at Kentucky gets $8 million and Chris Holtmann at Ohio State is No. 3 at $7.1 million.
As for major conference coaches closer to home, Villanova’s Jay Wright is at the top of the class for the Big East, with a base salary of $3.84 million that season, although Georgetown reportedly is paying Patrick Ewing in the $4 million range.
Among other Big East coaches, Providence’s Ed Cooley was at $2.45 million-per-year, St. John’s Chris Mullin was at $2 million, Chris Mack (now at Louisville) made $1.77 million when he was at Xavier, andMarquette’s Steve Wojciechowski made $1.77 million.
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