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Lobos coach's salary worth it for wins to come, AD says

By Iliana Limón
Saturday, March 24, 2007

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It's the kind of number that makes a statement.

The University of New Mexico will pay new men's basketball coach Steve Alford $975,000 a year for six seasons. His base salary will be $210,000, but UNM is guaranteeing television, radio and other incentives that make Alford a nose shy of the Lobos' million-dollar man.

School officials say the salary screams "we're major players," ready to restore the power of The Pit.

"If you want to win big, you have to pay big," UNM Athletics Director Paul Krebs said. "This is well within our budget. We're not raising ticket prices or anything like that to cover the cost of this. We believe bringing fans back to The Pit will pay for this investment."

Others are outraged by the figure, which they see as a misplaced emphasis on athletics at the risk of everything else at the university.

"I think it's absurd," said Sen. Joe Carraro, an Albuquerque Republican. "The UNM medical school can't afford to hire a neurosurgeon because most of them won't move for less than $500,000 a year, but we're going to pay a basketball coach almost twice that amount? It's absolutely ridiculous. Things are out of control at UNM. They are making some terrible decisions with the state's money."

Incoming UNM President David Schmidly begs to differ.

"This is absolutely the best coach we could get for the job," Schmidly said. "I think he's going to do tremendous things for this entire university and boost our national profile. We looked at our budget, and we definitely can afford this."

Schmidly pointed out Alford's salary pales in comparison to the $1.8 million the University of Minnesota paid coach Tubby Smith, hired Friday.

And it's nowhere near the salary of University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who makes $4 million a year.

Schmidly gave Krebs the green light to seek out the best coach possible to revamp the Lobos' program.

Ritchie McKay, who was paid about $500,000 with a base salary of $193,896 by the end of his tenure at UNM, was fired in February. UNM must pay $582,000 to buy out the remainder of McKay's contract.

Krebs said when he began searching for a new coach, he ruled out coaches who would need to be bought out of a contract at their previous school. Alford, 42, came with no strings attached.

Alford was the school's top candidate throughout the monthlong search, but UNM had to dig deeper into its pockets to lure him away from a $1.27 million annual salary at Iowa.

After two days of negotiations, Alford and Krebs settled on the $975,000 figure. The final details of the contract are still pending.

The salary likely makes Alford the highest paid coach in the Mountain West Conference - two of the league's private schools refuse to disclose salaries.

He also is the state's highest paid public employee, earning about nine times more than Gov. Bill Richardson.

If Alford's salary had made the small jump into the million-dollar range, he would have joined a select group of about 20 coaches making at least $1 million annually.

Alford's top assistant coach at Iowa, Craig Neal, is coming with him to UNM. He will be paid $250,000 a year, more than twice any of McKay's assistant coaches made and more than twice what former head coach Dave Bliss was hired for in 1988.

Krebs said fans returning to The Pit will pay for Alford's salary.

UNM typically makes $3.7 million annually off ticket sales but only drew $3 million last year. Krebs said the return of hoops mania would make plenty of room in UNM's athletics budget for Alford's salary.

The number still causes sticker shock for those who aren't avid hoops fans.

It stunned UNM undergraduate students James Gillen, 23, and Kimberly Lewis, 23.

"I'm mildly flabbergasted," Gillen said. "I knew he would get paid a lot, but that number is so high."

Lewis added, "That's just unbelievable."

They said their work study office on UNM's main campus is falling apart, making them question what is more important to the school.

"We had a ton of great faculty members leave because the university wasn't paying them enough, so it's crazy to see them spend this much money on a basketball coach."

Gate Tad, a 40-year-old doctoral student studying computer science, said he wasn't surprised by Alford's price tag.

"That's what it takes to be competitive and bring in a coach who can win," Tad said. "People who complain about the salary don't understand that athletics helps the whole university. It brings national attention to the school and inspires people to come here."

Alford knows the number and great fanfare that greeted him in Albuquerque on Friday come with a catch.

"I think the salary is fair, but I also know that people expect you to win when you make that much money," he said.

Schmidly and Krebs said they will give Alford time to build a successful program but expect a good return on their investment.

Alford joked that his former college coach Bobby Knight, who is infamous for his short fuse, often spoke of consequences for failing to meet expectations.

Schmidly adopted the same viewpoint.

"There will be consequences if we don't see results," Schmidly said. "I'm certain we've got a winner, but we won't be settling for anything less."