When FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman interviewed NCAA President Mark Emmert for our March 2011 film Money and March Madnessthere was one issue in particular that Emmert refused to address.
“Well, we don’t discuss my salary, but I am well paid, like many people. » he said.
We now know how much Emmert made in his first three months as president: about $400,000, according to tax data obtained by USA today. This figure, made up of compensation between October and December 2010, includes Emmert’s base salary, retirement and deferred compensation, other reportable compensation and tax-free benefits.
We won’t know how much he earns each year until the full tax documents are available. USA today speculates that Emmert’s salary could reach nearly $1.6 million per year.
The issue of compensation within the NCAA, which operates as a nonprofit umbrella organization with about 450 employees, is particularly contentious because of the disparity between the pay of the league’s top coaches and executives compared to that of Division I basketball and football players: not much, except for multi-year or one-year scholarships with the possibility of renewal, depending on school preference.
Emmert says 90 percent of the league’s annual revenue — which includes its 14-year, $10.8 billion deal with CBS and Turner Sports to broadcast March Madness — comes from the basketball tournament and is used to fund other NCAA sports that don’t differentiate. profit.
For the league president, the pay disparity boils down to one of the NCAA’s fundamental principles: “The fact is, they’re not employees. They’re student-athletes,” Emmert told FRONTLINE. “I think what would be completely unacceptable is actually turning students into employees.”
Many disagree, including Taylor Branch, who wrote a scathing article on the subject last year in Atlantic. And nearly two dozen former NCAA student-athletes have filed a lawsuit. class action accusing the league of violating antitrust laws by requiring student-athletes to sign away their rights to their image and likeness for life.
According to a 2011 study by the National College Players Association, an advocacy group for college athletes, the fair market value of the best NCAA basketball player is greater than $200,000.
The NCAA said USA today that a special committee set the salaries of NCAA executives and that the “committee employs an independent third party to conduct market research on similar positions.”
“Accordingly,” the league states, “NCAA executive salaries are commensurate with those of comparable executive positions.”
For more on the money debate and the future of NCAA athletics, watch our film Money and March Madness, And read our interview with sports economist Andrew Zimbalist.
Updated July 13, 2012
