Current Issues With Dr. Phillips

Feb. 9, 2005

A couple of weeks ago The Greenville News published our football coaches’ salaries. The article was nicely written, but it was not written in context with the marketplace which Clemson Athletics must work within. The article localized the context of football coaches’ compensation – relative to the campus and South Carolina. This is not an accurate depiction – the context for Clemson coaches/staff compensation is the programs within the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Bowl Championship (BCS) Conference.

While I would prefer not to have this issue continually in the public domain, I, nevertheless, thought it might be helpful to our membership to have an opportunity to review Clemson’s football salary structure within context to the Atlantic Coast Conference programs. I believe the following chart is self-explanatory and will provide meaningful information where we stand among our ACC counterparts.

Certainly, compensation issues are a topic of conversation in many quarters. However, conversation needs to be tempered within context regarding the marketplace that we must operate – as you can see, we attempt to be prudent and at the same time, also be fair and competitive with our coaches and staff.

POSITION	¹AVERAGE	²UPPER 25%	³CLEMSON
Head Coach *	$1,019,281	$1,270,587	$1,108,429*
Offensive Coordinator	$182,682	$204,650	$175,000
Defensive Coordinator	$205,547	$267,596	$175,000
Assistant Coach #1 *	$161,810	$180,476	$185,000*
Assistant Coach #2	$137,747	$155,063	$140,000
Assistant Coach #3	$132,214	$149,042	$133,000
Assistant Coach #4	$130,340	$138,877	$120,000
Assistant Coach #5	$122,600	$130,813	$118,000
Assistant Coach #6	$116,091	$128,141	$113,876
Assistant Coach #7	$101,138	$109,468	$93,571
TOTALS	$2,309,450	$2,734,713	$2,361,876
1 – 2003-04 Average=The average compensation of football coaches in the ACC.
2 – 2003-04 Upper 25%=Figure represents the lowest compensation level of the Upper 25%.
3 – Clemson=Present compensation levels.
* Includes supplemental pay such as Radio/TV, Nike, Speaking, Courtesy Car, etc. Please note Clemson figures do not include the use of courtesy car.