The Big Boys Coach School Salary Tubby Smith Kentucky $2.42 million Roy Williams North Carolina $1 million-plus* * $285,000 guaranteed and additional TV/radio income as well as his own Nike deal Bill Self Kansas $1.13 million* * plus $500,000 buyout paid Illinois Ben Howland UCLA $900,000 Dennis Felton Georgia $700,000* * plus $200,000 buyout paid Western Kentucky Oliver Purnell Clemson $700,000 Bruce Weber Illinois $500,000 The Other Half Coach School Salary Dick Bennett Washington State $430,000 Seth Greenberg Virginia Tech $420,000 Robert McCullum South Florida $250,000 Darrin Horn Western Kentucky $145,000 Mike Garland Cleveland State $135,416.67 Steve Shields Arkansas-Little Rock $128,000 Cy Alexander Tennessee State $125,000 Note: Guaranteed monies and don’t include incentives or perks such as cars, country club memberships and complimentary tickets.

Nice money. And we’re not even factoring in the cars, summer camps, country club memberships -- Self has two -- and myriad performance and postseason incentives. Smith, for example, stands to earn $2.42 million next season, yet Kentucky is obligated to write another check for $15,000 should the 'Cats make the NCAA tournament.

Of course, all this comes with heightened pressure to make noise on the conference and national scene, to play deep into the NCAA tourney. As Bennett puts it, “Not only are coaches paid more, but they are also more likely to lose their jobs."

And most coaches no longer answer only to an athletic director or influential boosters. College presidents are playing more significant roles in the recruitment of high-profile coaches. Why? Like it or not, a school's identity is ofen shaped by its athletic program, and a bad coaching hire, a scandal or an underachieving program can limit the number of talented applicants a school receives.

“At both major public and private institutions, the board is probably going to expect the university president to be involved, too," said Robert Hemenway, chancellor at the University of Kansas. “No one wants to have a situation where the president is saying, ‘Well, I don’t know anything about this’ if there is a scandal. We’re past the age of saying, ‘I’ll trust the athletic director to take care of that.'"

So Hemenway was in the middle of things as Kansas sought a replacement for Roy Williams this spring. And with KU also seeking a new athletic director, the chancellor has decided against the search-firm route will be conducting the search himself, assisted by interim AD Drue Jennings.

The Buyout

Thanks to buyout clauses, hiring a coach can be pricier than it appears. Kansas didn’t hesitate to pay the $500,000 Self owed Illinois for breaking a contract that had only recently been extended. But Illinois hiked the penalty to $1 million for Self's replacement, Bruce Weber. And KU -- which didn’t have a buyout clause for Williams -- plans to write a $1 million penalty into Self’s deal.

But if a school thinks it has found "Coach Right," seven-figure buyouts are simply part of the cost of doing business.

Buyouts Paid for Hires Coach Schools Cost Bill Self Kansas to Illinois $500,000 Dennis Felton Georgia to Western Kentucky $200,000* * and a 4-game home-and-home series Seth Greenberg Virginia Tech to South Florida $50,000

“To be honest, at most schools, if the person is successful enough and is really the key person that you want, you’re not going to be deterred with that buyout clause," said Hemenway. “You amortize the amount over a 15- or 20-year successful coaching position at a university."

Still, a buyout payment can be a nice consolation, especially if the clause is creatively written. Take a mid-major program like Western Kentucky, with a I-AA football program in which head coach David Elson earns less ($96,000) than the basketball coach. Officials recognized they had a hot property in Dennis Felton -- much like predecessors Gene Keady, Clem Haskins and Ralph Willard -- so they wrote in a $200,000 penalty if Felton left, which Georgia has agreed to pay in monthly installments over the next three years.

Future Buyouts for Leaving Coach Schools Cost Bill Self Kansas $1 million Bruce Weber Illinois $1 million Dennis Felton Georgia $400,000 Seth Greenberg Virginia Tech $250,000 Robert McCullum South Florida $250,000 Darrin Horn Western Kentucky $200,000* * plus 4-game home-and-home series Cy Alexander Tennessee State $125,000

In addition -- and here’s where AD Wood Selig got creative -- if Felton were to leave for a BCS conference or Conference USA school, his contract obligated the hiring school to play a four-year home-and-home series with the Hilltoppers.

So Western Kentucky now is guaranteed two home basketball games with Georgia at freshly renovated E. A. Diddle Arena, which Selig suggests could produce upwards of $200,000 to $300,000 a game.

“We couldn’t get prominent programs from BCS-type leagues willing to come to Western Kentucky and play on our home floor," Selig said. “We figured he’s going to more than likely get a pretty good job and that’ll get us an attractive opponent."

Georgia officials weren’t scared off by the buyout arrangement. Yet with Felton in the Bulldog fold, they’re doubling his buyout penalty to $400,000.

The Tubby Deal

The Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals are equally creative in crafting deals for their head coach. One advantage of setting up a separate athletic association outside the university is that it’s not bound by a state law stipulating that contracts can't be longer than four years. Tubby Smith's new deal with the association runs through 2011, and automatically extends to 2013 if Kentucky earns a trip to the Final Four in any of those seasons. No financial buyout is written to protect against Smith leaving for another job. But few places could afford him, and he has millions of incentives to stay, anyway.

Along with his $200,000 base salary -- less than the $260,000 North Carolina will be paying Williams in a contract that's still unsigned -- Smith receives guaranteed annual TV/radio, shoe and apparel income ranging from $1.55 million this season to $2.175 million in 2010-11. He also has a retention bonus of $1.5 million if he stays at Kentucky through April 2007. An additional $2.5 million is due if Smith is still on the bench in 2011.

The deal is loaded with additional incentives, including 20 prime, lower-level basketball tickets and eight tickets to Wildcat football games. Smith is also due $50,000 if his team’s GPA is 3.0 or better. There are four weeks of paid vacation.

And everything is guaranteed in the event Smith is disabled and unable to coach or dies, a clause that athletic officials say is almost unheard of in college sports.

Last year, presumably because of his stature as the Wildcats boss, Smith also pocketed more than $150,000 in outside income, including $15,000 from Michael Jordan’s basketball camp and a $5,000 speaking fee paid by the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense.

“It would be pretty difficult to spirit a coach away from all that," acknowledged Kansas interim AD Drue Jennings.

The Perks

At lower-level Division I programs, the base salary is about all the head coach can expect to see, other than maybe a courtesy car, a minimal shoe contract and use of campus facilities for his summer camp. Not so for the coaching heavyweights.

Top coaches earn the bulk of their money from TV and shoe/apparel deals, most of which are negotiated and distributed through the university to the coach. A few coaches, such as Williams and his predecessor at North Carolina, Matt Doherty, do their deals outside the university. Doherty's $500,000 Nike deal dwarfed his $150,000 coaching salary.

For coaches like Smith at Kentucky and Self at Kansas, their base salary accounts for only one-tenth of their total compensation package. It probably ranges from one-third to one-fifth with coaches in the major conferences.

Sweet Perks Coach School Tubby Smith Kentucky $1.5 million bonus if he remains thru April 2007; additional $2.5 million if remains thru April 2011 Oliver Purnell Clemson $900,000 bonus if he completes the six-year contract Seth Greenberg Virginia Tech $225,000 for PR and booster club appearances Dennis Felton Georgia $75,000 guarantee for summer camp Bill Self Kansas Six months mortgage fee or payment of the real estate commission on his current residence Dick Bennett Washington State Airline travel -- Upgrade to first-class business; wife to travel with team in pre-season and regular season; immediate family to travel in post-season; 10 domestic coach-class airline tickets annually

Somewhat harder to put a price tag on are the personal touches some coaches have written into their contracts -- perks like prime game tickets and travel for the spouse and family members.

Because of his Wisconsin roots, Dick Bennett made sure to agree on travel freebies before packing for the Washington State job. He upgrades to first-class business. His wife, Ann, gets to travel to regular-season road games, joined by their children and grandchildren in the postseason. The family gets 10 domestic airline tickets a year.

“Yeah, I’m a Wisconsin guy, and I think the people who engineered my contract were well aware how hard it was for me to leave that state," said Bennett.

So what is most important in a coaching contract? One is a rollover clause that kicks in after every season, so that the contract is always at its full length. Bennett ventures that coaches are living on the edge if they aren’t working on a five-year deal.

“When I say five, I mean you are always operating with a five-year contract," he said. “It’s easier [for a college] to end a relationship if it is less than that. On top of that, it affects recruiting because the kids are pretty savvy."

Oddly, the rollover clause that Bennett told us about doesn't exist in his contract. He laughs about not paying attention to contract details. But after coaching 36 years in Wisconsin, the 60-year-old Bennett is already drawing a pension from that state.

“Anything here," he said, "was gravy."

Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.

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