New Eastern Michigan University women's basketball coach to earn at least $170,000 per year
New Eastern Michigan women's basketball coach Tory Verdi will receive $170,000 in compensation each year, a monthly vehicle stipend and possibly thousands of dollars in bonus money, according to his employment contract.
Tory Verdi
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Verdi was named the new EMU basketball coach in late April. He has been an assistant coach at Nebraska and Kansas. He succeeds former coach AnnMarie Gilbert, who resigned from her position this year.
Last season, the Eagles advanced to their second-ever NCAA Tournament and won the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship.
Per his five-year contract, Verdi will receive a base compensation of $165,000 and an additional $5,000 for making radio appearances in association with his coaching position. Each season the women's team wins 20 games, the term of his contract will be extended one year.
He is set to receive a vehicle stipend of up to $500 per month and his assistant coaches will receive a $350 per month stipend. In May, Verdi named three assistant coaches: Rob Morris, an associate head coach for the men’s program at Canisius; Eastern Kentucky assistant Candice Finley; and former WNBA player Kristin Haynie.
Verdi's contract outlines the following bonus incentives:
- $5,000 if team is champion of its MAC division
- $7,500 if team is MAC regular season champion, $7,500 if team is MAC tournament champion, or $12,500 if the team wins both.
- $2,500 if team finishes among top-four MAC teams
- $7,500 if team is invited at-large to the NCAA tournament
- $7,500 per win in NCAA tournament
- $5,000 if team receives invitation to post-season Women's National Invitation Tournament
- $2,500 per win in WNIT tournament
- $5,000 for each year coach is named MAC coach of the year
- $15,000 for each year coach is named national coach of the year by Associated Press, ESPN, CBS or Fox
- $2,500 for each season team is named in top 25 by AP or ESPN Coaches Poll
- $5,000 for each season team is named in top 10 of ESPN mid-major poll
- $15,000 for each season paid attendance averages between 3,000 and 3,999 per home game. (Average attendance for home games is less than 1,000.)
If Verdi receives just $10,000 in bonus compensation, he will join the ranks of top-paid EMU officials. Last year, the top 20 earners at EMU made $180,401 and up. Head football coach Ron English is the school's top earner, taking home $367,920 in 2011. Assistant football coach Phil Snow took home $214,481 and Athletic Director Derrick Gragg earned $196,466. Men's basketball coach Rob Murphy makes $210,000 per year plus incentives.
According to a recent New York Times article, the median salary for head women's basketball coaches is $171,600.
Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.
Comments
Engineer
Wed, Jun 20, 2012 : 5:01 a.m.
How much if they win the NCAA? Since we are dreaming. Don't worry folks they will just up tuition and hang it on the kids trying to get and education. EMU would be wise to have made this a club sport and found a local high school coach willing to help them out for couple thousand per year. Could have kept their 000 promise instead of dang near a 4% increase in rates for getting a mediocre education!
licorice
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 8:17 p.m.
In recent contract negotiations the EMU administration has, time and again, pleaded poverty. Access to health care, living wages, adequate tech support in labs and classrooms, etc., are all "frills" that the University says it "can't afford." And yet, not only can they find $170,000 annually for a coach; they will also being paying another $1550 EVERY MONTH for car allowances for the coach and his assistants. This is disgusting, but it does clearly show where the upper administration's priorities lie.
Bill
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 6:56 p.m.
Not a single "welcome" to the community for the new coach. I wish the coach and his team the best for a very successful program. Try to overlook the bitter comments by some as you work to build your program.
TheGerman
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 12:53 p.m.
Absolutely disgusting to pay somebody this much at an institution that has to keep raising its "price" because it can't manage the budget it has. Why do a basketball coach and a football coach have to earn over a half a million dollars combined?
tom swift jr.
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 12:12 p.m.
Someone give me a good reason why all public university sports shouldn't be eliminated unless they are 100% self supporting (including cost of facilities, staff, coaches, events, scholarships, etc).
catfishrisin
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 1:56 p.m.
There are no good reasons
Jeffersonian Liberal
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 11:55 a.m.
The issue is not the sex of the coach, it is the cost that title IX has had on high school and college athletics. To attain your desired level of equality the pendulum has swung way back by eliminating many successful male programs like wrestling and gymnastics. Now you have someone getting paid slightly less than the highest paid professor for a non revenue sport that barely a handful of people give a rats behind about. Hope the radical feminist are happy.
tdw
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 10:27 a.m.
$170,000 for something that isn't even a sport ?
notta
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 2:59 a.m.
Wasn't there just an article about EMU cutting costs to fix budget problems and health care expenses? That's right, it doesn't count when talking about a crappy athletic program or top administrators at EMU. This is "Tru EMU"!!!!!
Engineer
Wed, Jun 20, 2012 : 5:02 a.m.
Spot On Bro!!!!
Danai
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 2:02 a.m.
Anybody know what AnnMarie Gilbert's salary was?
greg, too
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 1:55 a.m.
This is below what college coaches make....and I agree, it is sad and makes me wish I wouldn't have quit playing sports to go get that pesky education. The problem is that you need to pay a little more to woo people to a school like EMU. Just like getting players to play in Detroit, you sometimes need to pay a little more.
stunhsif
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 1:42 a.m.
Fewer than 1,000 folks attend each game, this is rather pathetic that they would pay the coach this much and hang a ton of bonus money to boot. I graduated from EMU in 1982 and never attended a single football game over the 5 years it took me to graduate. I did attend perhaps 5 men' basketball games during that time but never a women's basketball game. Doubt they even had women's basketball back then. Would guess that both the men's and women's track and field teams get more support than this since they have been far more successful in winning and placing nationally over the years. Seriously , who cares about women's basketball besides the players parents and siblings ? ABO
sellers
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 1:46 p.m.
Typically, women play more as a team and men play more an individual game. If you like show and fancy then the woman's game is not for you, but if you like teamwork and team play, then the woman's game is very much that. (generalization)
BGSU_FALCON
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 1:15 a.m.
It's ironic that I saw today the recent episode on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" about Title IX and how more head basketball coaching positions at the college level are going to men.
rjchampagne
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 12:16 a.m.
There goes the taxpayer money to support emu athletics that will never make any money and the next story will be emu raises tuition. Go out to willow run and see the private sector in ruins. The games are more important till the money runs out for good.
Gloria
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 12:07 a.m.
Yea, let's pay a basketball coach $170,000 while teachers make next to nothing. Seems about right in this community.