Just out of curiosity, since I'm a huge basketball fan, does anyone know who the highest paid basketball coach is in college sports? I'm wondering if there's a correlation between coaching salaries and team performance, like winning championships or sending players to the NBA.
Hey there! I can help you out with that. Currently, the highest-paid college basketball coach is Bill Self from the University of Kansas, who recently had an amendment to his contract that led to him becoming the highest paid coach. He earns about $13 million per year.
John Calipari, the head coach at the University of Kentucky, was previously the highest paid coach. His annual salary is roughly $9.3 million.
Regarding a correlation between coaching salaries and team performance, you're correct that winning championships and sending players to the NBA usually leads to that coach's salary going up. Universities can earn a lot of money from TV deals, merchandise and ticket sales, and so on when one of their sports teams is successful, so if they have a coach who brings in revenue, they're happy to compensate him accordingly.
However, there also may be excellent coaches at smaller schools that simply don't have the budget to pay their basketball coach millions of dollars a year. So, even if you don't end up attending a "blue blood" basketball school, you may still get to watch a high-quality product on the court.
I hope this answers your question!
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