ABOR to review contract for Arizona State AD Graham Rossini, details revealed
Jun 13, 2024, 7:45 PM
Arizona State University will ask the Arizona Board of Regents next Thursday to approve a multi-year contract for hired athletic director Graham Rossini and an extension for head football coach Kenny Dillingham.
Rossini’s contract would run through June 30, 2027 with a base salary of $650,000. The salary increases to $700,000 after one year and to $750,000 after two years. The money comes from revenue generated by Sun Devil Athletics.
Rossini would earn a retention bonus of $250,000 for being employed through June 30, 2027.
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Ray Anderson, who resigned from the AD role in November after a decade in charge, will continue to make a $950,000 salary until 2026 as a professor, a school spokesperson told The State Press at the time.
Rossini can earn a bonuses for athletic and academic achievements.
These include $50,000 for football conference championship or bowl game appearances; $75,000 for New Year’s Six appearances; $125,000 for College Football Playoff Championship appearances; $25,000 for making the postseason in basketball, baseball or softball and $75,000 for Final Four or College World Series appearances.
However, the university is implementing protections against sanctions handed out by the NCAA, Big 12 or self-imposed. ASU gave itself a one-year bowl ban last season. It received probation, fines and scholarship reduction from the NCAA for rule violations under former head coach Herm Edwards.
Rossini would have to forfeit and repay any performance bonus if achievements are vacated or “diminished” by sanctions. The caveat is the sanctions must come from violations Rossini knew or should have known was occurring. That or he failed to follow procedures established for the program to prevent violations.
If Rossini terminates the contract early, he would not be permitted to take an athletic director job at any conference school without consent from ASU president Michael Crow for the time period remaining under the deal.
Kenny Dillingham extension
Dillingham’s current contract will expire on November 27, 2027, and the university aims to give him a one-year extension.
An addendum in Dillingham’s contract said either a scholarship reduction of four or more players or a bowl game ban stemming from the investigation into actions by Edwards’ staff would trigger ASU to request an extension for “each year such sanctions are in effect.”
ASU’s new proposal would remove language obligating ASU to seek an extension of his contract for NCAA sanctions.
Dillingham’s current contract says if he terminates the contract, he may not become head coach with any conference school for the time remaining under the contract without Crow’s consent. ASU is proposing to eliminate this covenant.
More contract details for Rossini and Dillingham were made public by ABOR online.
