Louisville's Rick Pitino Is Highest Paid Public School Coach In This Year's NCAA Tournament

The average pay for coaches in this year's NCAA Tournament is $1.47M, "up slightly from" $1.4M last season, according to a front-page piece by Brady, Berkowitz & Upton of USA TODAY. That figure is "based on 62 of 68 schools in the field." Louisville coach Rick Pitino is the "highest-paid coach at a public school" in this season's tournament, making "just shy of" $5M. That figure would "likely make him his state's highest-paid public employee, if not for" Kentucky coach John Calipari, who "makes more than" $5.4M. American Council of Trustees & Alumni President Anne Neal said, "These salaries just look out of sync when it comes to the educational mission of our colleges and universities. Trustees and presidents have to ask themselves what justifies these obscenely rising salaries in a time of limited resources." The "largest dollar increases" among public school repeaters went to Kansas' Bill Self ($1.33M), N.C. State's Mark Gottfried ($750,000) and Indiana's Tom Crean ($646,250). The "most highly paid coach" in this season's tournament is Duke's Mike Krzyzewski at $7.2M, according to the most recent figures available for the private school. Calipari, whose team last year won the national championship, has a contract which specifies that he "can earn up to $800,000 in bonuses for his team's athletics achievements -- and $50,000 if his players achieve an Academic Progress Rate of 950, which the NCAA reports as the national average for men's basketball." Pitino's contract "allows a maximum bonus of $725,000, of which as much as $200,000 can come from the academic performance of his players." His maximum bonus will "rise to $775,000 next season, with as much as $250,000 for his players' academic performance." The largest of Pitino's endorsements "catalogued in his self-reported athletically related outside income report is $602,500 from Adidas." Listed below are the 15 highest-paid coaches in this year's tournament (USA TODAY, 4/4).

NOTE: * = Coaches were relieved of their duties following the schools' exits from the NCAA Tournament.

DEBATING THE MERITS: CBS Sports Network’s Allie LaForce said Krzyzewski is "well deserving” of be the highest paid coach. She added, “His lineup and his credentials are so ridiculous. He coaches Team USA, he’s been at Duke since 1980. ... He has proved to be loyal and dedicated and I think there should be some kind of payoff for that kind of dedication.” CBS Sports Net’s Doug Gottlieb added, “On the other hand, John Calipari should be the highest paid coach.” Gottlieb noted UK has signed “six top 50 guys already this year. From the moment Kentucky inked John Calipari to a contract to be their head coach, college basketball and college basketball recruiting changed.” Gottlieb noted Kentucky has always “had great facilities and they’ve always had great fan support,” and the success of a program is not always about wins, but “the talent they are able to go out and bring in on a yearly basis. The reason the players are going there is not because of Kentucky, it’s Calipari” (“Lead Off,” CBSSN, 4/3).