LADY RAIDER BB A Women's Coaches Salary Comparison

[MTFAN61]

I recently saw on one of our threads an overall salary comparison was brought up showing MT coaches salaries. When comparing football to men's basketball to women's basketball it struck me that CRI's pay after 19 years of service & success seemed relatively low.
Decided that might be unfair & to make a few comparisons to other relevant coaches in women's basketball.
Looks like the average salary for a top 20 women's coach is around $1.1 million annually. Being primarily all P4 schools makes sense, but agreed that's out of our league.
Remember CRI is 73 & has been here 19 years with 463 wins. That is an average of about 24.5 wins/year. Pretty damn good.
Here is a small handful of women's head coaches whom I would consider relative school contemporaries for MT, CRI, & their salaries for comparison. As reported on Wikipedia. If anyone knows of any reported errors please feel free to make corrections.

Belmont:
Head Coach, Bart Brooks: $444,000 annually

Florida Gulf Coast University:
Head Coach, Karl Smesko: $450,000 annually

Missouri State:
Head Coach, Beth Cunningham: $346,500 annually

Central Florida:
Head Coach, Sytia Messer: $650,000 annually

Gonzaga:
Head Coach, Lisa Fortier: $633,000 annually

Middle Tennessee:
Head Coach, Rick Insell: $316,000

If memory serves correctly I believe it was reported on one of our threads CRI was in the $350k range. My understanding the above are base salary pay, & not including media pay enhancements for instance.
Anyway, my take is if we want to be considered the Gonzaga of the South in Women's College Basketball this University should get its crap together & pay the man a proper salary compared to some of his contemporaries.
IMO CRI should be at least in the $400-$450k range. I'm embarrassed to see that this University hasn't shown this man the proper respect & pay for all the years & continued success he's brought to Middle Tennessee.
Pay The Man!!!

 

[mtfblue]

I recently saw on one of our threads an overall salary comparison was brought up showing MT coaches salaries. When comparing football to men's basketball to women's basketball it struck me that CRI's pay after 19 years of service & success seemed relatively low.
Decided that might be unfair & to make a few comparisons to other relevant coaches in women's basketball.
Looks like the average salary for a top 20 women's coach is around $1.1 million annually. Being primarily all P4 schools makes sense, but agreed that's out of our league.
Remember CRI is 73 & has been here 19 years with 463 wins. That is an average of about 24.5 wins/year. Pretty damn good.
Here is a small handful of women's head coaches whom I would consider relative school contemporaries for MT, CRI, & their salaries for comparison. As reported on Wikipedia. If anyone knows of any reported errors please feel free to make corrections.

Belmont:
Head Coach, Bart Brooks: $444,000 annually

Florida Gulf Coast University:
Head Coach, Karl Smesko: $450,000 annually

Missouri State:
Head Coach, Beth Cunningham: $346,500 annually

Central Florida:
Head Coach, Sytia Messer: $650,000 annually

Gonzaga:
Head Coach, Lisa Fortier: $633,000 annually

Middle Tennessee:
Head Coach, Rick Insell: $316,000

If memory serves correctly I believe it was reported on one of our threads CRI was in the $350k range. My understanding the above are base salary pay, & not including media pay enhancements for instance.
Anyway, my take is if we want to be considered the Gonzaga of the South in Women's College Basketball this University should get its crap together & pay the man a proper salary compared to some of his contemporaries.
IMO CRI should be at least in the $400-$450k range. I'm embarrassed to see that this University hasn't shown this man the proper respect & pay for all the years & continued success he's brought to Middle Tennessee.
Pay The Man!!!

do you think he took less to pay Matt more?

 

[MTFAN61]

do you think he took less to pay Matt more?

You present a very fair question I had not taken into consideration. I could not find any results on a search for what CMI's pay is at this time. If we look at FGCU's coaches pay at 450k we could probably assume top assistant around the 150k range. I know these are estimates, but if CRI & CMI are cumulatively in a similar $600-$650 range then said salaries for the two coaches could be fair.
I would like to think we could at least match or in fact better what Belmont & FGCU Head & top assistant coaches are making.

 

[MidTennFootball]

My guess is if CRI was really motivated to get paid as much as he could, he'd get it but I imagine he's sacrificed that in the name of other things that were critical to the program.

Also have to consider that he's double dipping due to his years as a teacher. The day he got hired at Middle was probably 2x-3x pay raise for him

 

[jakeboldenbrp]

You present a very fair question I had not taken into consideration. I could not find any results on a search for what CMI's pay is at this time. If we look at FGCU's coaches pay at 450k we could probably assume top assistant around the 150k range. I know these are estimates, but if CRI & CMI are cumulatively in a similar $600-$650 range then said salaries for the two coaches could be fair.
I would like to think we could at least match or in fact better what Belmont & FGCU Head & top assistant coaches are making.

Here are some figures for comparison. Although I agree Rick doesn’t get paid the money he may deserve based on wins but he would agree to spreading the compensation amongst his coaching staff. Might I add is one of the best in G5, if not top 30 in CBB.

MTSU:
Rick Insell: $316,000
Matt Insell: $200,000
Kim Brewton: $115,300
Nina Davis: $97,750


FGCU:
Karl Smesko: $450,000
Chelsea Lyles: $110,000
Camryn Brown: $55,000
Sheahan Dowling: New hire in 2024, no FOIA on file

Missouri State:
Beth Cunningham: $346,500
Darren Guensch: $129,780
Makenzie Kostas: $75,705
Olivia Applewhite: $86,520

 

[MTFAN61]

Here are some figures for comparison. Although I agree Rick doesn’t get paid the money he may deserve based on wins but he would agree to spreading the compensation amongst his coaching staff. Might I add is one of the best in G5, if not top 30 in CBB.

MTSU:
Rick Insell: $316,000
Matt Insell: $200,000
Kim Brewton: $115,300
Nina Davis: $97,750


FGCU:
Karl Smesko: $450,000
Chelsea Lyles: $110,000
Camryn Brown: $55,000
Sheahan Dowling: New hire in 2024, no FOIA on file

Missouri State:
Beth Cunningham: $346,500
Darren Guensch: $129,780
Makenzie Kostas: $75,705
Olivia Applewhite: $86,520

Very enlightening, & that doesn't include Tom Hodges or Kim Brewton. Appreciate the research.

 

[BlueAlpha]

A few things come to mind. CRI’s wife is an insurance agent for the same company I retired from on the operations side 10+ years ago. I know NOTHING about the size of her agency. “IF” she has an average size agency, she’s making a pretty good living. Combine that with CRI’s salary and you have a couple doing pretty well. Possibly similar to what Brady did with the Pat’s. He famously said since his wife at the time was also making good $$$, he was able to take a below market salary so the Pat’s had extra $$$ to help round out their roster.

It’s then not out of the realm he decided he would rather have more $$$ allocated to various parts of his budget. Be it, assistant coaches pool salary, recruiting, or travel.
Even though we live in another state, we had season tickets for many years till giving them up during COVID. We would travel to some of the in-season tournaments, if at a good location. I recall they weren’t staying at the Holiday Inn Express!

Lastly, while we don’t follow the team as closely as we used to, it seems they are recruiting more internationally now. If that’s the case, would think our recruiting budget would need to expand. Whether that entails numerous trips across the pond, I have no idea. No doubt, anyone they bring in on an official recruiting visit is going to cost a lot more than recruiting someone within a 5 hour radius of The ‘Boro.

From our time up there it seemed CRI had a tight relationship with McPhee. My guess is, if CRI wanted to be paid $500K he would find a way to make it happen. CRI is a smart guy, he knows the $$$ challenges we have.
He & his wife are doing well and he’s getting to work every day with one of his kids.

What’s not to like.

 

[MTFAN61]

Everyone has brought up some great points, & additional information. On the surface looking at comparative salaries one would think CRI is underpaid for the work he's done here. I should have thought ahead & known better, but the numbers above for our assistant coaches prove it. Very rare these days to see an individual in charge who would be willing to make personal sacrifices for the betterment of their program. Will have to do a personal backtrack & be glad to say I agree with everyone. This is coaches decision. A video came out earlier today with ncaa press reps where he talks about the fact if it wasn't for Matt & others coming on board he probably would have already retired. Kudos to him.
As a reminder the Blue Raider Podcast is recorded on Tuesdays & I believe CRI is this week's guest discussing this year's team.