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SPORTS UPDATE: CMU AD seeks to make Butch Jones among highest-paid MAC coaches

By on December 9, 2009 6:30 am in Football / 18 comments

 
SPORTS UPDATE: CMU AD seeks to make Butch Jones among highest-paid MAC coaches
(File Photo by Matthew Stephens/Presentation Editor)
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LAST UPDATED: 4:50 p.m. Dec. 11

Everything CMU Athletic Director Dave Heeke can do to keep football coach Butch Jones in Mount Pleasant will be done, Heeke said Tuesday.

Amid reports and speculation of Jones interviewing at Marshall this week and garnering interest at numerous coaching vacancies nationwide, Heeke said he would not comment on the searches of other universities.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment in any way on what other schools our doing with their searches … I’m not going to get involved in fueling the rumor mill or fueling speculation,” he said.

Aside from Marshall — there are conflicting reports on whether Jones will interview at Marshall as soon as Friday — Kansas also has shown interest in Jones to replace former coach Mark Mangino, according to KMBC-TV in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Start reported that Jones has informally spoken with Kansas Athletics Director Lew Perkins about the vacancy.

But Heeke put together another contract extension to better compensate Jones’ work — the Chippewas went 9-0 against Mid-American Conference teams, beat Michigan State on Sept. 12 and earned the No. 25 ranking in the Associated Press poll, the first time CMU has been ranked — and make him among the highest-paid coaches in the conference.

Besides Temple, which does not report other income and bonuses outside of its coach’s base salary, Heeke said Jones would be the highest-paid of the rest of the 13 MAC schools. Temple coach Al Golden has a base salary of $505,000, according to a Nov. 10 USA Today report.

Jones currently is the MAC’s eighth highest-paid coach with a salary of $308,450, the report said.

“We know what the salaries of every other institution (besides Temple) are and we’re ready to put Butch at the very top of that list,” Heeke said.

The Detroit News reported that Jones would earn a base salary of $400,000, including a chance to earn $200,000 more in incentives.

But Jones’ buyout would increase from $475,000 to $700,000 if he left prior to the GMAC Bowl on Jan. 6, the report said.

Currently, the MAC’s next highest-paid coach besides Temple’s Golden is Ohio’s Frank Solich ($456,000). CMU beat Ohio 20-10 in the MAC Championship on Friday at Ford Field in Detroit.

Needing help

Help through private funding at CMU, like other MAC schools, is minimal compared to bigger schools around the nation.

Heeke said those funds need to increase to make the next step as a program or stabilize where it is currently.

“If it wants to be a top-level, top-25 program, if this university wants to be a national leader, the key to that is private support,” he said. “So people need to step forward and invest in this university and believe in what it can do.”

Regarding the resources it can spend on keeping Jones, there is only so much that can be done, Heeke said.

“We’ve done all we can do to place an importance level on our football program that we can deal with in the means that we have,” he said. “That’s always a delicate juggling act with current economic times, what this university is kind of facing economically as well.”

But Heeke said the department is not in a position to use leverage in a deal or get in a bidding war, citing it as “stewards of public dollars.”

“We have to look at what is realistic under the financial parameters that we have on this campus … My philosophy is, we have to do the very best we can, put that in front of our coaches and then respect what happens from that point forward,” he said.

Jones was made unavailable this week for comment.

 

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  • Victor

    Let’s hope Heeke can manage Jones better than he managed the failgate debacle.

  • FireUp

    Good for Jones, and good for Heeke! No other MAC coach has had the success that Jones has had in the last three years, so for him to be paid 8th best in the conference is inexcusable. It may not even matter, however, if Jones leaves for Marshall or Cincinnati.

  • Herb

    Not sure what’s up with the Butch Jones Mystique. He wants out of CMU. Interviewed last year for the WVU job and wasn’t a serious candidate. He wanted Louisville and they passed too. He’s nothing special.

  • Christina

    I’m not sure that CMU will be able to offer him enough money to make him stay. It’s sad that it has to come down to the money of it..it’s not like a family can’t live on $308,000 a year.

  • FiredUpAlum

    It is unthinkable to me that CMU would offer him a DIME more than he makes. He had a winning season-Yes, top 25- we are all very excited, but the CMU is a State university in the State with the HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT. A State facing a budget shortfall of 3 Billion dollars. CMU will lose credibility to argue about their need for more state funding if they keep throwing dollars at a coach to make him stay. They need to be realistic. There is NO coach worth $308,000 much less $500K, that is three times more than the President of the United States for crying out loud. Get a grip Heeke, hire a new coach like everyone else and stop wasting TAXPAYER money.

  • Dan

    At such a precarious financial time for the university (the administration even has a website where members of the CMU community can suggest ways to reduce the budget), wouldn’t it be nice to think being the highest-paid university employee would be sufficient?

    If CMU indeed makes cuts to academic programs or student services, but can find extra money for athletic coaches and facilities, I don’t like what that says about our values as an institution.

  • Alum09

    Ever heard of the tactic he could be using. Interviewing with other schools to see if your current employer is willing to give you a pay raise( maybe scare em alittle bit). How can you blame a guy who is only looking out for his personal satisfaction? He doesn’t want to leave CMU, but I think he deserves much better than 8th best in pay in the MAC. The guy has won 2 out of 3 MAC Championships, yet Franky Solich makes 150,000 more than Butch. Befuddles me.

  • What

    Sounds like most of you don’t get it. Applications to CMU are at the highest rate they have ever been, and we can thank the PR department. Where to you think the PR department gets most of its ammo? Successful athletics (especially in football and basketball) brings in so much more for the university than most of you realize. And since Coach Jones is the head coach of our most successful program, he should be compensated for it. Heeke has done an amazing job as well–minus “Failgate ’09.”

  • 80/90 Alum

    Yeah. IF you are going to say the schools shouldn’t pay their coaches more than the president or that its taxpayers dollars, well, then you’re going to have to ask that ALL UNIVERSITIES at the DIV1A/FBS level not pay their coaches so much, because they all do it, not just CMU.

    CMU just needs to “keep up with the Joneses” so to speak. I’m in favor of keeping this program going in the direction its currently heading, more exposure, more PR, more National TV appearances. Its all good for the University and that kind of exposure would cost more than the raise & extension they are talking about giving Jones if they had to do it through an advertising campaign.

  • Big K

    I agree that football is probably the biggest attraction for students to come to CMU. Whether you like it or not athletics plays as an ambassador to the campus and the school. The more they make ESPN the better the school as a whole looks. On the other hand I hate how college coaches preach team, loyalty and family all the while they (coaches as a whole) seem to lie out their wazoos as they tell their players and recurits one thing and then go leave or at least make rumors of leaving to get higher paychecks. I think that we need to keep Butch Jones, but at the same time why does money still play a huge issue i decision making, when building a succesfull program out of a small school seems like it would be much more rewarding and will pay much more later all the while you make $308,000 BASE PAY! As a huge sports fan it befuddles me how everything else in real life that matters can be shrinking and laying off people that actually need money to put food on the table. Overall CMU has got to get Jones to stay, but where does the greed stop for college coaches?

  • Alum09

    A salary and raise should be a reflection of the product on the field. He deserves to be the top paid coach in the MAC. If they ever want to consistently be in the Top-25 then they need to keep a guy here to keep building the program. i.e. Chris Peterson at Boise State.

  • Adam

    Coaches of successful programs should be compensated well. A lot of individuals simply look at the salary number and forget how much money is brought in by the program. For example, my mom just couldn’t see the value in paying a basketball player $5 million dollars – well add in jersey sales, ticket sales, TV ads, playoff games, other merchandise, etc. from having a skilled player on your team that could improve the team and the investment is well worth it.

    With that being said, let’s see how we does next year without our star quarterback and some of his playmakers and then give him a raise if they continue to perform well.

  • Arod

    “CMU just needs to “keep up with the Joneses” so to speak.”

    Exactly! We cannot try to compare a football coach’s salary to that of what a family can live off of, what any of us ‘think’ is a fair salary, or that of the POTUSA. We need to compare the salaries to the market rate for a collegiate football coach for a school our size, the amount of success he’s produced, and other comparable factors.

    When you go into negotiations for a salary increase to your job, do you walk in and say “Hey Boss, I make $XX,XXX per year but the President of the United States makes $569K, I think I need to make that.” You’d be laughed out of the boss’ office and be made the joke of the water cooler that day.

    Seems to me that having him paid the most in the MAC makes sense. He’s proven himself on the field and put us at the top of the MAC.

  • Matt

    Pay the man, for the first time in 10 years I’m proud to be a chip.

  • Jeff

    To argue that no coach is worth half a million dollars, that’s just silly. Big time college football programs (Florida, Texas, Notre Dame, USC, etc) make millions of dollars per year in profit that is put back into the general fund of the university. As essentially the CEO of a profitable program shouldn’t the head coach be compensated for his efforts? $300,000-500,000 for a top notch head football coach is nothing. Wait and see what ND offers Brian Kelly. Mack Brown at Texas just got a pay raise to $5 million per year. Schools realize the investment they are making and the potential to cash in on a winning football team.

    I’m sure CMU won’t be lobbying for more government aid in hopes of paying it’s coach. I would bet that the football coach’s salary won’t even be an issue when state revenue is concerned. Michigan and MSU seem to get a nice share of state revenue while still paying their football coaches $2 million per year.

  • Dave Curtis

    Unfortunately, MAC programs are merely stepping stones for successful football coaches. Remember Nick Saban – one outstanding year at Toledo before he bailed and went back to Michigan State as the head coach? Now he is arguably the best, and certainly the highest paid, head coach in the country. Butch Jones will be gone, later if not sooner, if he continues to perform at CMU. No amount of money is going to change that. Wish him well.

  • rick

    He’ll be heading for Cinci now that Kelly is going to ND.

  • Jeff

    I wish Butch the best in whatever he does. He did a great job at CMU and deserves whatever higher profile jobs he can get.