Meyer's pay renews debate about OSU’s priorities

Details of Meyer’s contract:

Ohio State University’s terms of employment for Urban Meyer call for a six-year contract with the following annual compensation:

Base salary: $400,000

Media, promotions, and public relations: $1.85 million

Apparel, shoe, equipment: $1.4 million

Retirement contribution: $40,000

Coca-Cola appearance: $10,000

Additional perks

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COLUMBUS — Four million dollars annually is just a starting point for how much Ohio State University has agreed to pay Urban Meyer to restore its scandal-ridden football program.

A four-page preliminary agreement, signed Nov. 28 by Meyer and OSU officials, calls for a monthly automobile allowance of $1,200; the use of private aircraft for recruiting visits and personal use of a plane for up to 35 hours a year; a country club membership; a dozen tickets and a suite for home games; and an immediate $250,000 transition payment.

And if Meyer hits performance targets and sticks around for the duration of his six-year deal, he’ll be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

“He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the premier leaders in football. It’s represented in his record. But more importantly, it’s represented in him, the man,” OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith said last month when introducing Meyer to the press.

Meyer’s contract, which puts him in the top five among college coaches in the country, illustrates the market forces and huge money behind big-time college football. But it also demonstrates how anxious top university officials are to rebuild the football program after a year of upheaval and a mediocre season capped off by a loss to archrival Michigan.

“It’s the tail wagging the dog. It’s ridiculous that Ohio State is known for football and not for physics,” said Gordon Aubrecht, OSU professor of physics. “We are not the best university in the whole world — I wouldn’t claim that — but we are a very good university. ... There are so many opportunities for students to find something that will excite them and interest them. Yet all we hear about is football.”

Ohio State officials defend the hiring of Meyer, who won two national championships at the University of Florida, and are using it to market the university as a place where greatness happens.

Meyer’s photograph was prominent in a full-page ad the university bought in last Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch. “Our great university continues to attract the best and brightest in every discipline,” the ad said.

When asked how much it cost, OSU officials said they haven’t received an invoice.

Meyer is being paid from football program proceeds and funds raised by the Ohio State University Foundation. His contract is similar to the one for former coach Jim Tressel, who resigned in May after it came to light that he failed to notify his bosses of possible NCAA rule infractions by several Buckeyes.

Meyer’s contract is structured so he has incentives to remain a Buckeye for many years to come.

Meyer can earn $2.4 million in retention payments if he is still OSU’s coach through January 2018. He can earn as much as $300,000 a year if his student-athletes hit academic and graduation targets. Another $400,000 is possible for stellar performance on the field.

Here is how those on-field incentives work: If OSU is the Big Ten Leaders Division champion, Meyer gets an extra $50,000. He gets $100,000 if he wins the Big Ten Championship game. If the team goes to a BCS bowl, he is paid $150,000. If the Buckeyes play for the national championship, Meyer pockets $250,000.

Ohio State won’t have to dip too deep into its coffers to pay Meyer, thanks to the financial success of its football program. The program is projected to bring in $48.8 million this fiscal year while its expenses are expected to be $13.2 million. Football’s $35.6 million profit helps support OSU’s far-ranging athletic program, which includes more than 1,000 students competing in 36 sports.

OSU is the only university in the state with a self-sustaining athletics program, meaning it is not subsidized — nor are Meyer and the other coaches paid — by tuition money.

Sarah Wheeler, a first-year OSU student from Southpoint, said Meyer’s contract sets a poor example for the university.

“I think it’s an outrageous amount of money for a football coach,” she said.

Her boyfriend, Brad Barkin, a first-year student from a small town south of Canton, however, views a successful football program as a marketing tool to raise Ohio State’s profile and reputation.

“It seems like we got the most winningest coach there is because we are the best,” he said. “We are a football school. I think it’s awesome that we got him. He has, like, an 82 percent win rate.”

Football is a huge part of being a Buckeye, said Hannah Foor, a sophomore in the OSU nursing program. “You get a lot of camaraderie with the other students going to the games and doing all the cheers. It helps you feel you belong to the university and it is a fun way to be involved without studying all the time.”

She added: “I think the emphasis on football is part of our culture and the media. I don’t think it’s Ohio State’s problem alone.”

The terms and perks carved out for Meyer seem to be standard in coaching contracts at top-notch football programs, according to a Dayton Daily News review of several of those contracts. Automobile allowances, bonuses for bowl appearances, retention payments, media appearance payments, country club memberships, private aircraft travel and bonuses for hitting academic and graduation targets were incorporated into Tressel’s contracts, and also those for Louisiana State University coach Les Miles and University of Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Miles’ and Saban’s teams will battle for the 2012 national title Jan. 9 in New Orleans. Miles’ contract stipulates that if he wins the national championship, his pay will be bumped to no less than the highest coach’s compensation in the Southeastern Conference. Saban has a provision that gives him a pay review in 2015 and automatically bumps his pay to the higher average of the three highest-paid SEC coaches or the average of the highest five NCAA football coaches.

According to a survey of head football coaches’ 2006-2011 compensation by USA Today, six of the top 10 paid coaches are in the SEC, college football’s most dominant conference. Two of the remaining four are in the Big 12 and two are in the Big Ten, including Brady Hoke of the University of Michigan and Kirk Ferentz of the University of Iowa. USA Today did not include the departed Tressel in its rankings, but his $3.52 million compensation package would have placed him in the top 10 on USA Today’s list for 2010.

USA Today found that the average pay for major-college football coaches jumped 55 percent from 2006 to 2010 — from $950,000 a year in 2006 to $1.47 million in 2010 last year. This season, at least 64 coaches made more than $1 million.

Meyer has 20 years of coaching experience, most recently six seasons at Florida, where the Gators won national championships in 2006 and 2008 and compiled a 65-15 record. Citing health and family issues, he took last year off from coaching and joined ESPN as a commentator.

Meyer has deep ties to Ohio: He grew up in Ashtabula, played defensive back at the University of Cincinnati, earned a master’s degree from OSU and was an assistant coach at Ohio State under Earle Bruce.

Meyer’s agreement means he’ll earn at least twice what OSU President E. Gordon Gee made last school year and more than Tressel, who appeared in three national championship games in 10 seasons.

Aubrecht, who has spent 39 years of his career at OSU and enjoys attending Buckeye games, said a university’s purpose is to transmit knowledge to the next generation and create new knowledge.

“I think things are totally out of whack that we could conceive of paying the coach twice what the university president makes,” Aubrecht said. “President Gee is much more important to the university than Coach Meyer, but the dollars say that Coach Meyer is more important.”

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1624 or lbischoff@DaytonDailyNews.com.