Friday, April 22, 2011

Challenging incentives in Gottfried's contract

RALEIGH – New N.C. State basketball coach Mark Gottfried’s contract, which was approved by the school’s Board of Trustees on Friday, is loaded with incentives, many of which will be difficult to reach.

Athletics director Debbie Yow explained the basics of the contract on April 5, when Gottfried was hired. It’s a five-year deal with an automatic, two-year rollover if N.C. State reaches the NCAA tournament in 2012 or 2013.

Gottfried has an annual salary of $750,000 a year and will earn an additional $450,000 a year in quarterly installments as long as he remains the team’s coach.

"We're extraordinarily pleased that Coach Gottfried is our basketball coach, and look forward to returning to the NCAA tournament and continuing to graduate our student-athletes," Yow said while leaving the Trustees’ meeting Friday morning.

The contract calls for Gottfried to be paid his salary multiplied by the number of years remaining on the contract if he is fired. Should he leave for another coaching job, Gottfried will have to pay the school a buyout equal to his salary times the number of years remaining on the contract.

Gottfried, who coached Alabama for 11 seasons and most recently served as an ESPN analyst, also can earn up to $1 million in incentives - $750,000 for on-court performance and the rest for academic accomplishments of his players.

For on-court achievements, Gottfried can earn:

- Two months’ salary ($125,000) if the team wins the ACC regular season, or one month’s salary ($62,500) as ACC runner up.

- Two months’ salary if the team wins the ACC tournament, or one month’s salary as tournament runner up.

- One month’s salary for reaching the NCAA regional semifinals, with an additional one month’s salary for reaching the regional final, and another month’s salary for getting to the Final Four.

- An additional two months’ salary for reaching the NCAA championship game, and another three months’ extra salary ($187,500) for winning the NCAA title.

Gottfried has eight academic incentives, each worth a half-month’s salary ($31,250). He would be paid that amount each time N.C. State exceeds the national average for men’s basketball in academic progress rate, federal graduation rate or graduation success rate.

He also would receive that amount for an academic progress rate in the top 50 percent of public schools in the ACC; a team grade-point average of 3.0 or higher for scholarship players; a team cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better for scholarship players; a player who is selected Academic All-American; or an ACC scholar athlete of the year selection.

Some of the academic incentives appear to be as difficult to achieve as the challenging on-court incentives. The only Academic All-America selections in N.C. State history were Terry Gannon in 1984 and 1985, and Todd Fuller in 1995 and 1996.

Gottfried also will receive two courtesy vehicles with paid liability insurance on each, a membership at the University Club or the State Club, and one free meal a day at Case Dining Hall. He will receive 20 tickets for N.C. State basketball games, 10 ACC tournament tickets, payment for six Final Four tickets, and six N.C. State football tickets.

Ken Tysiac

0 comments: