MSU Gets Big Bang For Its $2.4M Coaching Budget Compared To U-M's $3.1M
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
DETROIT (CBS DETROIT) - When it comes to assistant coaches, the Michigan State Spartans have gotten tremendous bang for the many, many bucks they shelled out in 2013.
The Michigan Wolverines, not so much.
USA Today published a database of salaries of college football staff members. Michigan paid its offensive and defensive coordinators a combined $1,560, 700 for the 2013 season. Michigan State, who uses a defensive coordinator and co-coordinators for the offense, shelled out a combined $1,101,708.
The Wolverines are 7-5 and finished fifth in the Big Ten. The Spartans are 12-1, just won the Big Ten championship and are preparing for the Rose Bowl. In the big rivalry game, Michigan State beat Michigan soundly. Michigan paid a total of $851,400 to defensive coordinator Greg Mattison - who spent 2008 to 2010 in the same position for the NFL's Baltimore Ravens - and $709,300 to offensive coordinator Al Borges.
Mattison is the fourth-highest paid football assistant coach in the NCAA, while only seven assistants in the country earn more than Borges. For defensive genius Pat Narduzzi, who is up for numerous awards as assistant coach of the year, the Spartans dished out $558,908 in 2013, while co-offensive coordinators Dave Warner and Jim Bollman will make $280,800 and $262,000, respectively.
In total, Michigan paid its football staff $3,072,000. Michigan State's staff will collectively earn $2,410, 483. Along with head coach Mark Dantonio, Narduzzi, whose defense is ranked fourth in the country right beside Alabama and Florida State, can certainly be considered a top candidate for head coaching jobs across the country.
University president Lou Anna Simon said while she recognizes the interest in those two individuals, she hopes they will stay in East Lansing, and she sounded open to discussing more money to make that happen. "I think if you're wise in a corporate setting or wise in a university setting, you try to know that your best people will always be in demand," Simon said, "and we consider Coach Dantonio, Coach Narduzzi, to be among the best, and so you do a lot of things to make sure they feel good and connected to the Michigan State University, the coach, their family, and also that they trust in you that you will work with them on compensation issues."
The way Dantonio, Narduzzi, Warner and Bollman have the Spartans playing, Michigan State might have to open the wallet wider sooner rather than later.
