New federal tax returns for TCU, Baylor and SMU -- combined with transactions this past winter at Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas -- indicate that the 12 FBS programs in the state will be "paying a combined total" of around $25M "just to football head coaches" for the '14 season, according to Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY. The head coaches at Texas' five elite-conference schools -- TCU, Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas and Texas Tech -- "likely will receive at least" $19M in compensation in '14. Those figures do not include the more than $5M Texas "devoted to buyout-related compensation" for former head coach Mack Brown. The tax returns for TCU, Baylor and SMU are "reinforcing just how good the college football coaching business is in the state of Texas" (USATODAY.com, 4/25).
BROWN SUGAR: SMU President R. Gerald Turner said of paying basketball coach Larry Brown almost $2.8M last season, “I think all of us, if we could, would have the salaries in ranges that are less than they are. But as I told the board (of trustees for SMU): ‘If we want to get a coach right now, the range as far as we could tell is about $2 (million) to $4 (million per year) -- and otherwise, we’re going to sort of continue like we are.’ So, at some level you face reality, but in the same context of facing reality, you try to do it in a reasonable way.” Turner added, “We had gotten down to where we were averaging about a little over 2,000 a game and the most disturbing part was that the students weren’t coming." In Dallas, E.J. Holland noted SMU basketball averaged 5,653 fans per game during the '13-14 season, up 181% from 2,013 fans per game during the final season under coach Matt Doherty in '11-12 (DALLASNEWS.com, 4/26).
