HIGHER EDUCATION

Nearly 80 percent of big-time athletic departments that include academic incentives in the contracts of their men’s and women’s basketball coaches offer the men’s coaches more money than the women, according to a review of coaching contracts at 130 Division I institutions. On many campuses, those gaps are growing, says Matt Wilson, an associate professor of sport business at Stetson University, who has studied coaches’ compensation for more than a decade. He and Kevin L. Burke, a professor of sport psychology at Queens University of Charlotte, helped analyze the contracts for The Chronicle, which were obtained through public-records requests. The disparities in academic incentives are often substantial. At the University of Cincinnati, the men’s basketball head coach, Mick Cronin, can earn a $40,000 bonus if his team collectively maintains at least a 3.0 grade-point average. If the women’s team gets at least a 3.0 GPA, its head coach, Jamelle Elliott, collects just $1,000. And that gap has grown. Mr. Cronin’s bonus grew by $30,000 from his previous contract, while Ms. Elliott’s academic incentives did not change when her contract was renegotiated four years ago. -Brad Wolverton, Chronicle of Higher Education, Read More