Details emerge in five-year contract for Wichita State basketball coach Isaac Brown
The official contract has yet to be signed, but the letter of intent signed between Wichita State men’s basketball coach Isaac Brown and the university reveal many of the key details.
Brown signed the agreement last Thursday, agreeing to a five-year contract starting May 1 that will pay him a total of $6 million and keep him with the Shockers through the 2025-26 season.
According to the agreement, Brown will receive $1 million in compensation in each of the first two years of the contract, then $1.25 million in each of the next two years and $1.5 million in the final year. Brown’s average annual salary of $1.2 million over the next five years is a nearly six-time increase over his current salary of $210,000.
The agreement also stipulates that Brown is unable to break his contract and leave for another position before the 2023-24 season, keeping him with Wichita State for at least the first three years of his contract. If Brown leaves for another job between May 1, 2024 and April 30, 2025, then he would have to pay back half of his remaining salary ($1.375 million). If he leaves with one year remaining on his contract, Brown would have to repay 25% of his remaining salary ($375,000).
If WSU chooses to terminate Brown’s contract without cause in the first three years (before May 1, 2024), then the university would owe Brown the amount equal to the remaining balance on Brown’s contract. WSU would be able to buy Brown out of his contract in the fourth year or fifth year by paying half of his remaining salary.
Coaching incentives were not mentioned in the letter of intent, although those could be included in the final contract.
Former coach Gregg Marshall received bonuses for achieving such accomplishments as a winning conference record ($20,000), hitting a certain mark for the team’s academic progress rate ($35,000), winning a regular-season conference championship ($18,000), reaching the NCAA Tournament ($36,000) and playing in the Final Four ($100,00).
While Brown has certainly achieved some of those milestones by leading WSU to a 15-4 record and its first American Athletic Conference championship, WSU athletic director Darron Boatright told The Eagle that no WSU head coaches, including Brown, will be given bonuses during this athletic school year, a decision made this past summer by the university because of budget restraints stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
Fringe benefits for Brown were also not included in the letter of intent, although there is a clause that states that the “parties agree that they will make a good faith effort to negotiate and come to mutually agreeable terms regarding additional fringe benefits.”
Marshall’s fringe benefits included such things as two courtesy cars, complimentary memberships to Flint Hills National Golf Club, Crestview Country Club and Genesis Health Club, 16 complimentary tickets to each home game and one personal flight on a private aircraft anywhere in the continental United States per year.
Another detail not included in Brown’s contract is how much money he will have to allocate for assistant coaches. When Marshall started at WSU in 2007, he had a pool of $325,000 to pay three assistants. Entering this season, his three assistants made nearly doubled that salary — $617,000 combined. On the current staff, Lou Gudino is paid $230,000 annually, Tyson Waterman is paid $177,000 and Billy Kennedy is paid a little more than $96,000.
Marshall was also given use of the private plane a minimum of six times each year for recruiting purposes. No such mention of the private plane was mentioned in Brown’s agreement.
It remains to be seen how WSU’s spending will be affected not only by the coronavirus pandemic, but also because it has to pay Marshall a total of $7.75 million in bi-weekly payments for the next six years. The program’s career wins leader resigned last November in the culmination of an internal investigation into physical and mental abuse allegations made against the coach.
It’s not a surprise that WSU, in Brown’s letter of intent, of included new language in two of the 15 reasons that would allow WSU to fire Brown with cause:
- Requiring a student-athlete to perform a physical act that is not relevant to the sport of men’s basketball but is, instead, obviously intended to embarrass or degrade a student-athlete.
- Engaging in deliberate physical contact with a student-athlete or (WSU) employee that is obviously not necessary for instructional purposes (but not including occasional appropriate supportive or congratulatory physical contact).
Brown is expected to sign his official contract following WSU’s current season.
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