Big 12 Conference’s administrators to take a 10% salary cut during COVID-19 shutdown
Big 12 administrators will take a 10 percent salary cut, including commissioner Bob Bowlsby, and all year-end bonuses have been eliminated, the conference’s commissioner said in an interview with ESPN.
The cost-cutting is a response to lost revenue this school year because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has halted all college sports since mid-March. The Big 12 lost $6.6 million in canceling its men’s basketball tournament at Sprint Center after just one day of competition.
The conference is expected to lose $15 million to $18 million overall for the 2019-20 school year budget, but Bowlsby said that member schools like Kansas and Kansas State should receive revenue consistent with previous years because of reserves and the fact that Oklahoma reached the College Football Playoff.
Bowlsby earned $3.3 million in 2017, according to tax records obtained by USA Today.
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard announced 10 percent salary reduction and elimination of bonuses for its coaches and administrators last week.
The remaining concern for Bowlsby and other college sports administrators in the Big 12 and around the country is the uncertainty surrounding college football.
“We’re making lots of contingency plans, but if you don’t get the anticipated number of games in, you lose the donations, you lose the sponsorships, you lose the gate receipts and you lose the TV. It’s potentially very impactful,” Bowlsby told ESPN.
College football delivers revenue in several ways, such as ticket sales, media contracts and sponsorships. At major programs, football income supports all other sports.
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said on a radio program earlier this week that he has contemplated a school year without football which could happen in pandemic concerns extend into the fall.
“You’re talking about the economic engine for our entire program, and if we’re not playing football at all in the upcoming year, that is something no one has ever imagined,” Castiglione told Sooners play-by-play man Toby Rowland. “But now we’re having to do that. What does that look like financially?”
Several contingency plans have been discussed among power-conference officials, Castiglione said.
“We’re looking at all kinds of models, between a full season starting on time, to slightly altering the start of the season, whether that means moving it up a couple of weeks, back a couple of weeks, whether that means a shortened season, whether that means moving the entire season or a portion of the season to the spring,” Castiglione said. “We’re looking at any and all kinds of models and be able to adapt to one of them depending upon what the medical experts tell us.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 3:52 PM with the headline "Big 12 Conference’s administrators to take a 10% salary cut during COVID-19 shutdown."