Gerald Turner Discusses June Jones Salary

[50's PONY]

Knight Commission co-chair backs big salary for SMU football coach


Southern Methodist University President Gerald Turner says the contract of head football coach June Jones is a "sustainable expense."


By Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY
In his capacity as co-chair of the reform-minded Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, Gerald Turner cautions about increasing spending by major-college athletics programs.
In his capacity as president of Southern Methodist University, Turner has overseen one of the nation's most drastic recent increases in football-coaching compensation, according to data compiled by USA TODAY and information obtained Wednesday in conjunction with SMU's newly filed federal tax return.

That document shows SMU paid coach June Jones $2,142,056 during the 2008 calendar year — more than a 300% increase over what the university paid Jones' predecessor, Phil Bennett, during a fiscal year that ended May 31, 2006.

However, in an interview, Turner said Jones, who was hired Jan. 7, 2008, received a $500,000 signing bonus and a 2008 base salary of about $1.6 million.

At that time, Jones' salary likely made him the top-paid football coach at a school in a conference without an automatic Bowl Championship Series bid.

Turner says that is what he and other top school officials anticipated would be the case when they asked a group of 12 to 15 prospective donors how much they could contribute "on an annual basis the first five years (of a new coach's contract) and then indefinitely."

Turner and the Knight Commission are among those who've been at the forefront of warning about athletics programs' ability to keep increasing expenses amid the recession and about the politics of such increases while overall higher-education funding is in crisis.

USA TODAY has studied the compensation paid to head football coaches in the NCAA's 120-school Bowl Subdivision in November 2006, December 2007 and November 2009. From 2007 to 2009, a number of schools made greater dollar increases in compensation to its coach than SMU did. But other than SMU, no school for which USA TODAY could obtain data had as large a percentage increase in the compensation it paid.

Information for coaches at private schools such as SMU was obtained, as available, from their tax returns, which list their highest-paid employees.

"We wouldn't have (given Jones such a lucrative contract) — believe me we wouldn't have done it — if it wasn't a sustainable expense ... based upon what these individuals said they would do," says Turner, adding that the donors signed pledges and some already have paid their entire commitments in full.

In November 2009, with SMU headed to its first bowl game in 25 years, Jones received a two-year contract extension through the 2014 season. SMU has declined to provide any compensation figures beyond those in its tax return.

TCU's Gary Patterson also is a top earner among schools in conferences without automatic BCS bids. He made $1,624,089 during the 2008 calendar year, according to that school's recently filed return, but that includes $70,000 in bonuses. He was paid $1.8 million for the '09 season, TCU's athletic department told USA TODAY last fall.

In early December, when TCU had a 12-0 record and was headed to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Patterson agreed to a new deal that included a two-year extension through 2016. TCU has declined to provide new compensation figures.

Turner says SMU's dealings with Jones and his work with the Knight Commission are compatible.

"I'll tell you, with the SMU hat on, it makes you very aware of the point that (he and others on the Knight Commission) have been making," he says. "One person can't do it — it's going to take everybody working together, but then every individual has to have a budget that is sustainable for his or her university. I think those are the two things we've been saying, and I feel that what we've done here is compatible with both."

Because of the routine lag in reporting to the IRS, Bennett's $517,857 in pay for the 2006 fiscal year was reported by SMU in spring 2007. The return SMU filed in 2009 showed Jones with $1,206,368 in earnings from his hiring Jan. 7, 2008, through May 31, 2008. The new return — which provides the first look at Jones' pay for a full year — was filed under a revamped IRS system that requires non-profits to report employee compensation on a calendar-year basis, rather than a fiscal-year basis.

[SMUSA2013]

They just never should decrease his paycheck... what he is doing to this program is something that will be felt for the next 20 years. I don't think they should consider lowering his paycheck especially with us parents having to pay the tuition we do for our kids to attend! I just hope we can keep June from moving to greener (or in his case of enjoying rebuilding programs, dirt brown) pastures.

[Mestengo]

You had to pay Turner a million a year so we would know it was ok to pay the football coach, Ha. Well I’m sure he has other tasks as well.

I see Dr. T generously donates at the Peruna Level .

[Cardinal Puff]

Yes Mestengo,we should know Dr Turner's total points and rank.

[Mestengo]

Yes Mestengo,we should know Dr Turner's total points and rank.

My point's are so low they don't even send them ha ha.
But I do something money can't buy, I show up!