Arizona's five highest-paid coaches and athletic director Dave Heeke will take voluntary 20% pay cuts, putting them and all other head coaches in line with the university's pandemic-prompted pay reduction plan, the school announced Wednesday.
With football coach Kevin Sumlin (who was to earn a base salary of $2.6 million in 2020-21) and men's basketball coach Sean Miller ($1.8 million), the university's athletic department will save $880,000 alone. Those two high-profile coaches also receive university-paid compensation for peripheral duties such as radio shows (Sumlin at $900,000 and Miller at $700,000) that is not being reduced.
Cuts to the 2020-21 salaries for Heeke ($760,000), baseball coach Jay Johnson ($530,000), women's basketball coach Adia Barnes ($407,500) and softball coach Mike Candrea ($345,000), will save the athletic department another $408,500.
Heeke estimated last month UA faced a revenue shortfall in fiscal 2019-20 of about $7.5 million that would lead to an overall deficit of about $1.5 million, though UA's athletic department faces much steeper losses in fiscal 2020-21 if football is canceled or delayed.
The coaches' contracts do not say their salaries can be cut for a pandemic or other force of nature but UA said Sumlin, Miller, Johnson, Barnes and Candrea all volunteered to take a 20% cut, the same as all university employees who make more than $203,500 per year.
In the 2020-21 academic year, Sumlin's salary was scheduled to jump from $2 million to $3.5 million including peripheral duties while Miller's contract calls for $1.8 million in base salary plus $700,000 for peripheral duties for a total of $2.5 million.
Other UA head coaches will be subject to cuts according to the tiers announced previously by the university, ranging from 15% to 20% for coaches making between $75,000 and $203,500.
In a statement, Arizona's athletic department said it is "a proud member of the University of Arizona community, and we are committed to continuing our work to address the economic hardships of this unprecedented crisis. ... We will overcome these immense challenges together with compassion and determination because that is the Wildcat Way.”
Under its revised plan for pay cuts and furloughs, UA announced Monday that those making $44,500 to $75,000 will take up to an effective 10% pay cut via furloughs of between 14 and 26 days.
Those earning between $75,001 and $150,000 will take bracketed cuts between 10-15% in the form of between 27-39 furlough days.
Employees with salaries between $150,001 and $199,000 will receive flat pay cuts between 15.4% and 17% Employees between $200,000 and $203,500 will receive cuts between 17.3 and 20%.
In UA's initial announcement, president Robert Robbins said the school projected losses of $250 million through the 2020-21 fiscal year, with the salary reductions projected to save the school between $90 million and $95 million.
UA's athletic department is largely self-funded except for receiving paid utilities, a student fee and tuition fee waivers, but also faces potential multi-million dollar losses ahead in lost ticket sales, sponsorships and media rights (if seasons are moved or canceled).
