As UNC-Chapel Hill’s athletic director of 15 years, Dick Baddour, prepares for retirement, UNC has been preparing the paperwork for a competitive contract with his replacement, Bubba Cunningham.
Cunningham, who has previously been the athletic director for the University of Tulsa, signed a six-year contract assuring him $525,000 in annual salary, as well as a $40,000 expense account and a bonus structure, according to Chapel Hill’s athletics department.
When Baddour was asked to elaborate on how a half-million dollar salary could be justified in light of the UNC System’s removal of hundreds of educational positions, he responded by saying such questions should be referred to the chancellor’s office and UNC’s press staff.
“You really don’t have very good information,” Baddour said. “Let me tell you something, I’m the retiring person. I’m the one who’s leaving, I’m not the one who could talk about the person coming in, that’s not my hire.”
Baddour , reluctant to speak about the salary of his replacement, did offer to elaborate on the responsibilities of an athletics director.
“[The responsibilities are to] lead and manage very complex organizations, to manage, in this case, an over $70 million budget, to be responsible for all the personnel action, and all the student athletic programs in place as well as the sports programs, to [oversee] the building and maintenance and operation of facilitates, to conduct major events on campus. That’s just to name a few,” Baddour said.
Chancellor Randy Woodson’s salary is $420,000, according to publicly available documents. N.C . State’s budget in 2010-11 was $1.2 billion, according to the University website.
When N.C . State’s Athletic Director Debbie Yow was asked to comment on the spending that goes into securing an athletics director, she offered background information, but asked to not be quoted, saying it was not her business to look into how other schools spend their money.
Yow’s salary is $450,000, according to a data set aggregated by USA Today regarding athletics director salaries.
Dutch Baughman , executive director of the Athletic Directors’ Association, elaborated on why athletic director positions are so hard to fill, and why it is necessary to offer competitive salaries.
“Over the past forty years, the role and responsibility of a director of athletics has changed significantly,” Buaghman said. “Today, if you were to ask the executives of companies that are involved in these searches, they would be very quick to tell you that what they look for today in an athletic director would be very similar to what the corporate world would look for in a CEO.”
Currently, Forbes notes that North Carolina’s unemployment rate is at 10.2 percent. According to open records from Duke, N.C . State, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest and ECU, the average yearly salary for North Carolina’s athletic directors totals $588,001.
The average salary nationwide was $423,526 according to the USA Today data set.
North Carolina High School Athletic Association associate commissioner, Rick Strunk , has previously worked in college level athletic departments. When asked to comment on the spending differences between college athletics directors and their high school equivalents, he pointed out that in high school, athletic departments are subject to budgets set by the state.
“It would be difficult to compare the two,” Strunk said. “Colleges have different revenue structures and concerns. At the high school level, athletic instructors get bonuses for their positions, but they are also required to teach regular courses as well.”
Several state and nationwide athletics directors were contacted and asked to comment on their salaries, but all either declined or did not return communications.
