ASU president Michael Crow: compensate coaches on performance

College football coaching salaries are up, and likely will continue to rise in upcoming years.

According to USA Today, the average salary for an FBS head football coach has increased 70% from 2006 to 2012.

To slow this trend, ASU president Michael Crow says that instead of giving head coaches top-tier base salaries, the coach has to earn it. The incentives push an otherwise average salary into a much larger one.

“If you look at our major revenue-generating sports, we try to keep our salaries in the median level and then provide for incentives for success, as opposed to just raising and raising and raising these salaries every year no matter what,” Crow said on the Doug and Wolf show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

According to proposed Arizona Board of Regents documents, which were approved, ASU coach Todd Graham will make $2.7 million in 2014, a raise of $300,000 from last season, with the potential for $3.49 million more in combined athletic and academic bonuses.

Some of these bonuses may be lofty, such as the one worth half of his base salary for winning the national championship, but other benchmarks have already been reached, such as appearing in the Pac-12 title game and finishing in the Top 25.

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