ramMan

Spot on. Per SLU's Form 990 for fiscal year 2009, Rick Majerus's salary was $731,976 (see below), which is comparable to what Fordham is paying Tom Pecora. BTW, Majerus was the third highest paid employee at SLU in 2009. Scott Fosko, chairman of the dermatology department at SLU's med school, was compensated $855,987, and forensic pathologist Michael Graham was paid $750,362.

Rick Majerus's Compensation
Base Compensation: $698,380
Other Reportable Compensation: $1,386
Retirement and Other Deferred Compensation: $24,500
Nontaxable Benefits: $7,710
Total: $731,976

thetorch

That 700k and change salary is what the University pays him only. He is also compensated by boosters. His salary is 1 Million.

ace93

In other words it's 1 million less than what SMU is offering.

He'd be insane not to at least talk to SMU. I hope he stays at SLU though he'd be a big loss (no pun intended) and add to the soon departure of Temple.

rusty X

If SLU has given the ok to formally interview, it is a done deal. SMU is using a headhunting firm, and the only question for Rick now is how much he will like the SMU AD. The facilities are as good as any in the country. Matt Doherty got them a practice facility built that is nicer than the one he had at UNC. The arena is undergoing a $40 million facelift. And with the hiring of June Jones a few years ago for the football program, they have shown that they do things first class now. And with scruples.

Interestingly, June Jones is paid about $2.25 million, and his contract is being paid directly by only 10 boosters, who each agreed to pay $200,000 per year for up to 8 years. I am sure they have a similar deal set for whoever gets the basketball job. And, the advantage of the boosters picking up the tab is that the assistants wind up among the highest paid in the country.

You may have heard on ESPN the story of how the SMU AD assembled the 25 biggest boosters of the athletic program at a restaurant to talk about just how much a first class athletic program would cost right before Jones was hired. Five were billionaires.

Full disclosure - I got my undergraduate degree from SMU and contribute to the athletic department each year. Up until now, the basketball program has barely been worth keeping up with. Hence my affinity for the Xavier program.

__________________
If you are going to have sex with an animal, make sure it is a horse. That way, if it does not work out, you always have a ride home. So sayeth Willie Nelson.

DoubleJayAlum

SMU will most likely fly charters instead of commercial air.

rusty X

they started flying charters last season, however, the plane is not nearly as nice as the Xavier charter

__________________
If you are going to have sex with an animal, make sure it is a horse. That way, if it does not work out, you always have a ride home. So sayeth Willie Nelson.

Billiken_JG

If I had to guess, I'd say it's a ploy by Majerus to get SLU to buck up a little more $$$, though not necessarily his salary primarily. More so charter flights, assistant coaches salaries, etc.

That said, given the way SLU operates, I'm not sure if they're smart enough to realize that they need to do what is necessary to keep him, because that's what successful programs do.

SpiderDave19

Is he the kind of guy to play that game though? I'm a bit alarmed that he asked for permission to talk to SMU. Gaining leverage to get the current employer to buck up makes sense, but I'm not sure Majerus is that kind of operator.

Billiken_JG

I'm not sure. I just think that given that it took him 5 years to get to the NCAAs at SLU, it would be a 3-5 year rebuild job at SMU as well, and at Rick's age it would seem really strange to leave a tournament team for a rebuilding job.

To be honest, if it gets SLU to realize that they can't pull this small time bunk anymore, I might be ok with it.

rusty X

I was surprised when I read this story
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colle...O9-XwA.twitter

It sounds amazingly like what June Jones - the SMU football coach - went through before he left Hawaii for Dallas. He had to use a small hand held camera he won at a golf tournament to record his practices. There was a large stain from a leaky air conditioner in the middle of his office. And the recruiting budget at Hawaii was only $50,000. At SMU he got a $500,000 recruiting budget, and did have to go nearly as far to get his full crop of recruits. In fact, he could drive and recruit more than half of his recruits.

It looks to me like St. Louis was being cheap in those areas that are important to a head coach. Good travel budget, money to pay for good assistants, and money to help his assistants do what they are supposed to do.

This is beginning to look like Groundhog Day again.

__________________
If you are going to have sex with an animal, make sure it is a horse. That way, if it does not work out, you always have a ride home. So sayeth Willie Nelson.

BmoreX

Really it comes down to a few lists of pros and cons for leaving SLU:

Pros: more money, Big East conference
Cons: several more years of rebuilding, more travel

slufan13

He's not going.

Muddy Waters

Good article rusty X – well worth a read.

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__________________

ramMan

Tweet sent 18 minutes ago by Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com:

Jeff Goodman ‏@GoodmanCBS
Rick Majerus has spurned SMU, sources told CBSSports -- and will remain at Saint Louis.
8:07 AM - 12 Apr 12 via TweetDeck

Boozehound

He may just like rebuilding programs and SMU may be fine with that.

Kind of a "Hey, why don't you come coach here for 3-5 years @ $2MM per year to help rebuild our program? After that you can retire with an extra $3MM-$5MM dollars" kind of thing.

Edit: Or not. Good for SLU and the A-10 that Majerus is staying.