Gene Smith's performance bonus
Gene Smith recently got a bonus for one of the Ohio wrestlers winning a National Championship.
The Associated Press in Columbus reported that Smith will receive a bonus of $18,447.94 -- one week's worth of his standard pay -- for Ohio State junior wrestler Logan Stieber winning a national championship last weekend.
Smith signed a new contract this year that pays him a bonus for "exceptional athletic achievements," including Final Four and Bowl Championship Series appearances or titles won by individuals in any of 20 sports.
http://msn.foxsports.com/ohio/story/ohio-state-wrestler-wins-ncaa-title-ad-gets-18k-032514
if the bonus is the same for an individual winning the NC as for the basketball team making the Final Four.
March 27th, 2014 at 11:14 AM ^
This Cleveland.com article has some more details on Smith's bonuses and a link to his contract. He gets four weeks' worth of base salary for a Final Four appearance (plus two more weeks if the team wins the NC).
March 27th, 2014 at 10:55 AM ^
It does feel wrong. If the ADs at big schools are also in on the championship feeding frenzy, where does the buck stop in terms of making sure they don't cut every corner to try to pad their pockets with corrupt championships? The school Presidents? Sure like that's high on their priority list of things to do...
Just seems like AD comp should not be tied to winning, and that should be the realm of the coaches, not the AD. I'll toss this into the pile of me just being naive about this.
March 27th, 2014 at 12:02 PM ^
I understand that it feels wrong. Assuming that highly compensated successful coaches and AD's can be justified in the first place, remember that it is the AD who runs the show. He/she picks the coaches, ensures the facilities are top notch and creates the environment for fan support and for successful recruiting. These tasks are very important to the success of each sport and to the perception of the school itself.
This is an individual directly benefitting from an individual. Understand wanting to reward AD for performance of teams but, turns my stomach a bit still.
I mean, come on. Smith didn't recruit the kid, he didn't coach the kid, he may not even know the kid--and he gets a bonus because the kid won an NCAA championship? Hey, if the money is there for the taking, I understand Smith taking it. But on what possible basis could ohio state think it made sense to award its AD with a bonus under such circumstances? Truly absurd.
Its not like the Athletic department enabled his success or anything. With enough individual effort, you can overcome anything. I mean, Rocky did it against Drago...
but I failed during the fight and caught myself cheering. Damn Rocky.
Very stupid contract by a large university who should have attorneys smarter than this. Instead of this dumb move for bonuses relating to individual players, he should have just been given a higher base salary. They would not be in this situation.
March 27th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
What situation are they in? Gene Smith runs an organization, and when that organization sees success, he gets a bonus. Why does this not make sense to everyone? Every coach in the NCAA has bonus incentives. Why shouldn't the AD? National titles are a big deal, and that's one of Gene Smith's major objectives. Why shouldn't he get compensated for accomplishing it?
I wish I could get a bonus for when one of my subordinates does well. No bonus for the subordinate though; only me. /s
How is this any different than individual coaches getting performance bonuses? Gene Smith's job is promoting the athletic programs, and a huge part of that job is getting wins. Why wouldn't the university want to incentivize that?
To me it's the indirectness of it that just kind of smells bad. Like, somebody hired Gene Smith, and it is his or her job to hire good people, who then hire and oversee coaches who coach players. So whoever hired Gene Smith should get a performance bonus.
On a different matter, sometimes I don't understand how rich people think. If I were Gene Smith I would take that money and help fund a non-athlete scholarship. What's he gonna do with it, buy a used Buick LeSabre? That money would be much better used on good PR for the athletic department.
It's this kind of thinking that has catapulted me to the 45th percentile of my chosen occupation, I realize, but still.
March 27th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^
Have you scene Gene Smiths tax returns? How do you know what he does with the money or how much he gives to charity? I have never understood people thinking that they have the right to make moral judgments about how others spend their own money. Who knows maybe for all we know he is giving all 18 grand to feed starving children in Sudan.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^
I don't think ADs should get bonuses for what the team and coaches do. They have little to do with the process of playing the games and winning. Their job is to hire and supervise the coaches and, to some degree, players (the coaches are ultimately responsible for that) and run the business side of the athletic department.
March 27th, 2014 at 12:34 PM ^
The AD has little to do with the success of the teams? Who decided which wrestling coach to hire? Who decided to improve the wrestling facilities? These are AD responsibilies. Obivously the coach has a lot of impact on it as well, and I'm sure he got a bonus too. But let's not act like the success a team has had nothing to do with the AD.
Exactly. The school wants to incentivize him to choose good coaches and make sure they have all of the resources necessary to win championships. There's nothing wrong with that.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:03 AM ^
Who's to say he didn't get a cut?
The man is in charge of a multi million dollar orgainizaiton. Pay him what hes worth. If he was the CEO of a steel plant he would be getting performance bonuses as well. If people he had never met did a great job that earned the company a lot of money he would get a bonus. Likewise if people who he never met did a horrible job, he would be held responsible for fixing the problem or he would be shown the door.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:21 AM ^
How many times must people point out the differences between a public university and a corporation before people stop making this comparison?
March 27th, 2014 at 10:38 AM ^
+1,235,488
March 27th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
How do you feel about coaches receiveing bonuses for chapionships / other success? There are certain differences but I don't see the harm in incentivizing success. It does look silly when it's an individual goal (vs. a team sport), but it's not really that far fetched, and I would bet Brandon has similar clauses in his contract (and Hoke definitely does)
March 27th, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
It's not that I'm necessarily against the idea of performance-based bonuses, though I do think the better option is a general salary increase. I just hate the comparison to the private market. Wrestling isn't even a revenue sport.
March 27th, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^
But why does it matter? He runs an organization that has revenue. He has goals as the leader of that organization. What is wrong with an incentive program for achieving those goals? You're obviously OK with him getting paid, or even getting a raise, but for some reason having it be based on incentives is wrong and I don't see why that's different. Why is a raise better than a bonus?
For the record, Brandon actually does not have these types of his bonuses in his contract (PDF). He's eligible for annual "additional compensation" up to $200,000 based on meeting mutually agreed-on "performance objectives" that are established each year. The specific objectives aren't spelled out in the contract but relate to his overall performance as AD, achieving "financial performance metrics," achieving "fundraising objectives," and completing certain short-term projects—"capital projects, coaching changes, technology implementations, etc."
Basically, there's nothing in Brandon's contract similar to the specific bonuses outlined in Smith's.
Thanks for doing the legwork.
Until people realize that there really is no difference.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:03 AM ^
This is a perfect example of the ridiculous fiscal waste that fuels the argument for paying players. I am against paying scholar-athletes, but I'm more disgusted that an athletic department would toss around $18,000 like it's nothing, Yes, in the grand scheme of the athletic department's budge, $18,000 is pittance, but it's money that could have gone somewhere that could have directly benefitted the wrestling program rather than lining Gene Smith's pocket.
I don't know how many kids are on Oiho's wrestling squad, but if it's 18, that's $1000 for each and the school isn't upside down a penny.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:39 AM ^
March 27th, 2014 at 12:42 PM ^
Here's why: OSU has an enormous athletic department, one that they want to have continued success. In order to have success in any major organization, you need to hire the right leaders, and part of that is paying them a lot of money. OSU decided Gene Smith was a great leader, and they had negotioations on what he should be paid, then agreed on it.
Could they have found an AD who would have taken the job without any of these incentives? Absolutely. But that may have been a lesser candidate who also brings in less revenue. So you save 50k in bonuses but you bring in 100k fewer dollars. If you have a guy who does a good job, you pay him good money.
Sure, you could take Gene Smith's money and give it to somebody else. But then Gene Smith could walk and you have to find another AD, maybe one that's not as good.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^
March 27th, 2014 at 10:39 AM ^
I love this country.
March 27th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
Is this student / athlete now elegible for a tattoo?
March 27th, 2014 at 11:51 AM ^
as long as he doesn't pay full price for it.
March 27th, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^
Definitely don't pay the players, though. And screw them and their stupid union. The real heroes are the old white guys who run AD offices and the herd of MBAs who work with them to park noodles on campuses and have "dynamic ticket pricing" while scheduling App St. again.
compensation sucks. Period. Total nonsense.
Please explain. Is it just because it's "a lot?"
What a joke, even by Ohio and Smith standards.