BOULDER, Colo., Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Pending approval by the school's Board of Regents at its next monthly meeting, Colorado football coach Gary Barnett will work the 2002 season under a five-year contract extension structured to make him financially competitive with the nation's highest-paid college coaches.
Published reports indicate Barnett's annual financial package, which includes a "back-loaded" incentive clause instead of the more traditional bonuses based on seasonal performance, will be worth about $1.6 million, according to CU Athletic Director Dick Tharp.
The contract runs from July 1, 2002-June 30, 2007, and could pay Barnett up to $8 million. Increases include his base salary, up from $163,000-to-$180,350, his Nike contract, and TV-radio revenue from $365,000-to-$665,000.
Replacing supplemental income based on the Buffaloes' final rankings, bowl appearances and national titles won is a single package incentive that will pay Barnett $2 million if he stays at CU for the next five years.
That does not appear to be a problem. Barnett, 56, told the Rocky Mountain News that he can't see himself coaching anywhere else.
"Ecstatic," he said about the deal. "My goal is to get another one. All I can get is five (under state law). I would have asked for 10."
Or possibly 15. Barnett believes he still is energized enough about his occupation to coach the Buffs until he's 70, provided his record merits such consideration from the school's administration. He has a three-year mark at CU of 20-16, with a pair of bowl appearances. His overall head-coaching record: 63-72-2 over 12 seasons.
Tharp said the salary increase nudges Barnett, whom he called "an absolutely perfect match for (CU)," among the top three highest-paid coaches in the Big 12 and the top 10 nationally.
"My guess is that it's a Top 10 deal," Tharp said. "We're a Top 10 program."
The News report said that, according to a salary survey published last August by USA Today, Barnett would trail only Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and Mack Brown of Texas in the Big 12. Stoops, making $2 million annually, is college football's highest-paid coach, now that Steve Spurrier ($2.1 million last season at Florida) is directing the NFL's Washington Redskins.
Brown's 2001 salary, according to the survey, was $1.45 million. Nebraska's Frank Solich, R.C. Slocum of Texas A&M, and Kansas State's Bill Snyder earned $1 million each last season. All received annual raises.
Tharp said money to pay Barnett's salary over the next five years, as well as the $2 million incentive, will be "budgeted in . . . We'll start putting it away in reserve and building to it. We won't get to the end of the contract and say, 'Oops, it's not there. Sorry.'"
After the Buffs finished 10-3 last season, won the Big 12 and played in the Fiesta Bowl, CU's first Bowl Championship Series appearance, Tharp said Barnett received $90,000 in supplemental income. Barnett's contract at Northwestern, where he coached for seven seasons before returning to CU, also included performance bonuses and an incentive for staying for the length of his contract.
Barnett claimed performance incentives are of little concern.
"Incentives don't affect one single thing," he said. "What am I going to do, cheat? I'm not going to prepare (the team) any differently because there are a couple of thousand dollars (for the coach) riding on a game."
In addition to Barnett being rewarded, Tharp said CU's assistant coaches also are being given raises that make them competitive with the Big 12's upper echelon.
"They're now probably in the top 10 in the country," Barnett said. "That's as important to me as being in Boulder for the next five years."
Earning $135,000 annually now, CU's coordinators, Shawn Watson (offense) and Vince Okruch (defense), will go to $150,000 next season. The Buffs' lowest-paid assistant currently earns $75,000 a year.
