Late in March, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby touched on coaches’ salaries and football expenses when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic and the fallout that is likely to come.
“This probably should cause us all to ponder what’s really important in college athletics, and indeed our life beyond college athletics,” Bowlsby said. “I think you’ll see budgets on campus flat and salary budgets flat.
“It’s not a time when we’re going to throw a lot of money around. We’re all going to have to be careful about our management of resources.”
Iowa State made the first move among Big 12 schools, announcing $3 million in one-year salary cuts to coaches as well as the elimination of coaching bonuses.
On Thursday, Bowlsby and the Big 12 conference followed suit, announcing the conference has implemented a 10% salary cut across the board in the conference office, including for himself, in an interview with ESPN.
“We’ve eliminated all year-end bonuses and are formulating a reduced scope of operation plan that saves quite a bit of money, but we’re a relatively small operation,” he said in the interview. “Most of our resources are passed through to our members.”
Earlier in the week, Jon Wilner of The San Jose Mercury News reported that Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott will take a 20% reduction of his salary. The conference also announced layoffs for the Pac-12 Network.
———
©2020 The Dallas Morning News
Visit The Dallas Morning News at www.dallasnews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.