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Fast-paced morning here at Cardiac Hill! Whenever these coaching rumors come up, salaries and buyouts always come up as it's obviously a very integral part of why a coach would leave one job for another. This morning, Adam Zagoria released a comment detailing how much TCU is willing to invest in TCU
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is strongly considering taking the TCU job, source confirms to @SNYtv 'They're offering to double his salary.'
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 21, 2016
But wait, what is considered Dixon's salary? That's the big question, because it means different things to different people. According to this article from Sam Werner (that article picture is FANTASTIC by the way), Dixon's total pay in 2014 was roughly $3.2 million, but that was a combination of base pay ($1.4 million) and incentives. So when that TCU source says "double his salary" are they doubling $3.2 million or $1.4 million? Because those are VERY different numbers. Doubling $3.2 million would make Dixon one of the top 3 paid coaches in the country.
Now, Sam Werner also details that the $3.2 million number included leftover from a previous contract term. However, Paul Zeise, the Post-Gazette Pitt beat writer, maintains that Dixon's annual pay is indeed close to that number.
@PittScript @SWernerPG Dixon's annual pay is somewhere between the 2.7 to 3.2 number. And this year's tax document will tell us exact #
— Paul Zeise (@PaulZeise) March 21, 2016
@SWernerPG @PittScript And from what I understand - his buyout is between $1.25 and $1.5 mil per year left
— Paul Zeise (@PaulZeise) March 21, 2016
If you go off of the word of Paul Zeise (which I would, he knows his stuff), TCU would have to offer Dixon a hell of a lot of money if they planned on doubling his salary, and that doesn't touch the roughly $10 million buyout. Now, base compensation is always better than incentive based pay, but it seems to me that in Pitt's situation that the "incentive" is just padding the base. Dixon hasn't been stellar in the last 3-4 years so if he's making that much money and not making the tournament some years, it sounds like the incentives aren't too high to attain. That's simply my speculation though. Unfortunately, Pitt is only state-related, and thus not required to release specific details of contracts with its employees. We can only find out total compensation numbers after the fact in Pitt's tax documents. As for the buyout, Pitt can always relax that somewhat if they feel that's in their best interest
TCU writer Carlos Mendez was on 93.7 the Fan this morning, and said TCU would be willing to pay Pitt's buyout for Dixon and had the money to make an attractive offer to Pitt. TCU also recently renovated their basketball stadium to be one of the best in the B12, so the school is definitely willing to invest the money required to become a contender in the B12. Money shouldn't be considered an object here (within reason).
Should be an interesting next 48 hours.