| FTBL Coach Sarkisian's New Raise

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Sark's gettin' paid! $850K raise to now $2.5mil/year!

Bama OC Sarkisian gets raise to $2.5 annually

Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian's new contract worth $2.5M annually
2:13 PM CT

Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian's new contract, which includes a raise to $2.5 million per year, was approved by the school's board of trustees on Wednesday.
According to USA Today database, that is more than nine Power 5 head coaches (including Brian Kelly of Notre Dame) were paid in 2019.

In addition, defensive coordinator Pete Golding received a one-year extension and a raise that will pay $1.225 million annually.

The contracts for Sarkisian and Golding run through Feb. 28, 2023.

Sarkisian, who was originally scheduled to make $1.65 million annually, was a top target of Colorado's coaching search before he withdrew his name from consideration in February.

Sarkisian, previously a head coach at Washington and USC, joined Alabama as an analyst in 2016. He left the next season to be offensive coordinator of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. He returned the Alabama as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach last season; the Tide had the second-highest-scoring offense in college football (47.2 points per game).

Sarkisian, 46, underwent heart surgery on July 2.

Among the Alabama deals announced Wednesday was that of new director of sports performance David Ballou, who has a two-year deal that will pay $500,000 this season and $525,000 the next. Strength and conditioning coach Matt Rhea, who replaced longtime assistant Scott Cochran, received a two-year deal worth $450,000 this season and $475,000 the next.

The terms of the new deals were agreed to in February but were not presented for the board of trustees' approval until Wednesday.

Alabama is scheduled to begin preseason practice on Aug. 17.
 
A LOT of people lost their shit over the raises being announced today. Sadly, AD Byrne had to release a statement to tell everyone that these raises for the staff were agreed to in February, before this pandemic through the whole world in to chaos.
Personally, I see this as a “HC in waiting” raise possibly. Who knows?
 
Poor optics fo sho. After telling us to give more money and revealing job cuts, telling us we won't be getting tickets most likely, you see raises that could fund 30 jobs or more.

Incredible.......BAD!...
First...really is he worth it...
Second...timing....donate more money working people...so we can compensate a AC at this level....
Third.....wTF
 
So, these raises are brought to the BOT in February before anyone knew where this C-19 was going or what we'd be looking at SIX months down the road.

The BOT receives the recommendations, they approve them just like they would on any other time line, and because it's announced now it's bad timing, poor optics? An annual review of salaries and moves to compensate employees?

I don't get the angst considering this is standard operating procedure; the school's administration moving on with the business at hand. Is that not what we've wanted all along?
 
A LOT of people lost their shit over the raises being announced today. Sadly, AD Byrne had to release a statement to tell everyone that these raises for the staff were agreed to in February, before this pandemic through the whole world in to chaos.
Personally, I see this as a “HC in waiting” raise possibly. Who knows?

Personally, I think Saban is trying to lock in his OC for his last three years of coaching. Heresy, I know.
 
So, these raises are brought to the BOT in February before anyone knew where this C-19 was going or what we'd be looking at SIX months down the road.

The BOT receives the recommendations, they approve them just like they would on any other time line, and because it's announced now it's bad timing, poor optics? An annual review of salaries and moves to compensate employees?

I don't get the angst considering this is standard operating procedure; the school's administration moving on with the business at hand. Is that not what we've wanted all along?

Claiming poor optics isn't saying I don't agree with annual raises. The timing is just poor from an outside perspective, especially after they revealed other cuts and people were let go, on top of asking for more money. The question is, could these raises have been delayed? Sarkesian can survive in Tuscaloosa a few more months on his salary.
 
The question is, could these raises have been delayed?
Why should they have been delayed? This was done in February. I see this as very similar to those who are saying "something different should have been done in January in regard to C-19" when no one knew what the country was dealing with at the same time.
 
Why should they have been delayed? This was done in February. I see this as very similar to those who are saying "something different should have been done in January in regard to C-19" when no one knew what the country was dealing with at the same time.

When did the pay increase go into affect, February? I say knowing what we know now and after making cuts, they could simply delay the raises a few months if they just now went into affect. If they just went into affect, the Board of Trustees already knew for months of this lingering situation, dating back to the cancellation of March Madness and all of this crap dealing with an uncertain fall football season (both revenue sports, so not mentioning other sports that aren't). You know me, I'm a capitalist, and all for folks making as much as they can in this world, but I also don't like seeing the folks making $30-50,000 a year lose their job while a guy making $2M gets a pay increase six times more than the person that lost their job makes. The person lost their job to nothing they did, but the current situation the world is in. Sarkesian will survive, but the cut employee may not, in a small town in Alabama. They may have voted in February, but if the increases just took affect, there was plenty of time to make a decision to delay. Once again, the optics, timing, and execution are bad, not the raise themselves, although plenty will argue with Golding receiving one.
 
When did the pay increase go into affect, February? I say knowing what we know now and after making cuts, they could simply delay the raises a few months if they just now went into affect. If they just went into affect, the Board of Trustees already knew for months of this lingering situation, dating back to the cancellation of March Madness and all of this crap dealing with an uncertain fall football season (both revenue sports, so not mentioning other sports that aren't). You know me, I'm a capitalist, and all for folks making as much as they can in this world, but I also don't like seeing the folks making $30-50,000 a year lose their job while a guy making $2M gets a pay increase six times more than the person that lost their job makes. The person lost their job to nothing they did, but the current situation the world is in. Sarkesian will survive, but the cut employee may not, in a small town in Alabama. They may have voted in February, but if the increases just took affect, there was plenty of time to make a decision to delay. Once again, the optics, timing, and execution are bad, not the raise themselves, although plenty will argue with Golding receiving one.
Double 👍👍

And ...is he really that good?
I haven’t seen it....
And coach in place....Nick may stay 5+ years....
 
When did the pay increase go into affect, February? I say knowing what we know now and after making cuts, they could simply delay the raises a few months if they just now went into affect. If they just went into affect, the Board of Trustees already knew for months of this lingering situation, dating back to the cancellation of March Madness and all of this crap dealing with an uncertain fall football season (both revenue sports, so not mentioning other sports that aren't). You know me, I'm a capitalist, and all for folks making as much as they can in this world, but I also don't like seeing the folks making $30-50,000 a year lose their job while a guy making $2M gets a pay increase six times more than the person that lost their job makes. The person lost their job to nothing they did, but the current situation the world is in. Sarkesian will survive, but the cut employee may not, in a small town in Alabama. They may have voted in February, but if the increases just took affect, there was plenty of time to make a decision to delay. Once again, the optics, timing, and execution are bad, not the raise themselves, although plenty will argue with Golding receiving one.
Standard operating procedure.

The staff is reviewed after the end of each season and the raises that we're seeing now, as well as the ones we've seen in the past, are submitted to the BOT after these meetings. This last series of raises was submitted to the BOT last February. As it is each season these raises are approved when they are slated to be on the calendar for the BOT in their meetings. And, just like it's always been, we see the announcements in August and September depending on when the meetings with the BOT take place.

Your timeline here is off, by a lot. March Madness wasn't cancelled until the middle of March. The raises were submitted before that. The uncertainty of the football season wasn't even a discussion point in February and it was barely part of the discussion in March. We were talking about spring camp, but not about the possibility of what would happen this fall.

Just using Sark as a quick example. We knew he was getting a raise in February. It was published by outlets covering college football when Sark interviewed with Colorado.

Which goes back to my earlier post. Why all the angst about something you knew was going to happen?

A quick google search:



 
And they could have agreed to postpone until financial situation is resolved

If it was Nick. Whatever he wants. But Sark. He isn't that good to deserve this much MORE in this time of crisis
Postpone something due to something no one knew was going to happen? Come on.

Isn't that good, but schools are wanting to hire him as their head coach. Isn't that good, but Saban sees the value.

Y'all would be shitting if this was a problem in February with Sark and he wasn't here now...which would, make no mistake about this, have a bearing on Bryce Young.
 
I realize how college boards operate since I am serving on one myself. The raise was approved at the February meeting to be enacted for the current 2020-2021 school year. We do ours in May when we have a better read on the money for the upcoming year (private/christian fully accredited college). I have no problem with anyone getting a raise but with the current situation, the UA Board of Trustees should have had another virtual meeting rescinding the motion or freezing salaries until the current situation is resolved. Going from 1.65 to 2.5 is a huge raise with so many families just struggling to get by. Not mad at UA or Coach Stark, just trying to look at it from a common, everyday person.
 
I realize how college boards operate since I am serving on one myself. The raise was approved at the February meeting to be enacted for the current 2020-2021 school year. We do ours in May when we have a better read on the money for the upcoming year (private/christian fully accredited college). I have no problem with anyone getting a raise but with the current situation, the UA Board of Trustees should have had another virtual meeting rescinding the motion or freezing salaries until the current situation is resolved. Going from 1.65 to 2.5 is a huge raise with so many families just struggling to get by. Not mad at UA or Coach Stark, just trying to look at it from a common, everyday person.

The key thing to remember is that the majority, if not all, of the coaches' salaries are paid via boosters and not via tuition and fees. The board still oversees compensation and how money is spent (otherwise the athletic department becomes its own entity with no supervisor). Several coaches around the country have had their salaries reduced to help with COVID-19 struggles. This can happen at Alabama.
 
I realize how college boards operate since I am serving on one myself. The raise was approved at the February meeting to be enacted for the current 2020-2021 school year. We do ours in May when we have a better read on the money for the upcoming year (private/christian fully accredited college). I have no problem with anyone getting a raise but with the current situation, the UA Board of Trustees should have had another virtual meeting rescinding the motion or freezing salaries until the current situation is resolved. Going from 1.65 to 2.5 is a huge raise with so many families just struggling to get by. Not mad at UA or Coach Stark, just trying to look at it from a common, everyday person.

Exactly what I was trying to say, but you worded it better.
 
Claiming poor optics isn't saying I don't agree with annual raises. The timing is just poor from an outside perspective, especially after they revealed other cuts and people were let go, on top of asking for more money. The question is, could these raises have been delayed? Sarkesian can survive in Tuscaloosa a few more months on his salary.

I believe Sarkisian was being pursued for a few job openings and thus the pay increase was awarded in February. We might need to look at when the BOT meetings occurred, if any occurred at all from the February decision until this latest meeting. Where there any Zoom or Google meetings between then and now? Or were they just sending emails back and forth.
The timing does look poor from the outside viewpoint, but again, what was happening with the BOT during this down time? Who knows?
 
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