The fame. The glory. The sense of accomplishment.
And the money.
Winning an NCAA team championship comes with a lot of perks, not the least of which is a significant payday for coaches who take their teams to victory.
At the 2024 NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships, the University of Virginia women won their 4th consecutive title while the Arizona State men won their first-ever championship.
Both Arizona State head coach Bob Bowman, who has since left to take over as the Director of Swimming at the University of Texas, and Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo had significant bonuses written into their contracts for winning NCAA team championships.
How Much Did Bob Bowman Receive?
Bowman received a $50,000 bonus for his team’s NCAA title according to the incentives in his employment contract. That’s almost 25% of his annual base salary of $219,000.
Of course that pales in comparison to the big prize, which was a massive contract from Texas that starts with a base salary of $400,000 per year and increases to $450,000 per year in its final season in 2029-2030. In addition, he can receive up to 67% of his salary in bonuses annually, which would amount to $1.7 million of additional money over six years. If maximized, his contract carries potential earnings over around four-and-a-half million dollars, plus benefits.
In addition, Bowman was named the CSCAA Men’s D1 National Coach of the Year, which earned him a further $10,000 bonus. While the national title doesn’t guarantee Coach of the Year honors, the two are highly correlated.
Bowman also received $10,000 for leading the Arizona State men to the Pac-12 Conference Championship and a $10,000 bonus for being named Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
How Much Did Todd DeSorbo Receive?
Todd DeSorbo signed a new five-year contract in 2021 that carried a base salary of $140,000.
That contract has a stipulation in it that a men’s NCAA team championship earns him 1.5 months of base salary, a women’s championship earns him 1.5 months of base salary, and if both teams win a championship in the same season, he receives 3 months of base salary, plus $5,000.
1 month of base salary for DeSorbo is worth $11,666.67, which means his bonus for the NCAA title comes out to $17,500.
He also received a bonus for the ACC Championship for women ($5,000), being named the ACC Coach of the Year ($5,000), and being named the National Coach of the Year ($10,000).
In both cases, these are just the bonuses written into their employment contracts with the university. Collegiate swim coaches often receive additional compensation and bonuses from boosters, sponsors, camps, and other organizations that is not public record and is not accounted for in their employment contracts.
Hey, $400k is a nice chunk of change, but the fact that it only rises by $50k over a six-year period means that his average annual salary increase comes in at around 2%. I’m surprised his agent didn’t negotiate for more. Any idea of how this relates to what Eddie was being paid?
Yea and that’s 50% pay cuts from Todd’s previous job in financial!
A $35k bonus for winning both men’s and women’s NCAAs is the biggest slap in the face reward. You’d think it should be 10x that amount, but alas this is just swimming
How many swim meets did you go to in 2024 that you weren’t 1) paid to go to, 2) didn’t have a family member/close friend racing at?
UVA football can go to the Cheezit Bowl and their coach gets a bigger bonus than Desorbo for winning a natty. But what has UVA football ever done to improve the UVa brand? The Olympic swimming was like a week long advertisement for UVa in primetime. Desorbo is underpaid. Sorry, it’s about way more than how many people attend college swim meets….
He’s got a coach on his staff that makes 35k base. Not sure getting that as a bonus is the biggest slap in the face.
DeSorbo is the biggest bargain in swimming right now.
DeSorbo will command top dollar upon conclusion of this bargain-basement contract. Granted, he signed near the end of COVID, and before all the big accomplishments / recruiting coupes. Like the other Olympic sports (versus football and basketball) these coaches’ salaries are loooooow comparatively – except at the very top.
Any coaches at any major women’s program that is underachieving right now should be concerned in 2026.
Can’t coach men… kind of a half bargain
What would be interesting is if Capitani wins an NCAA title if her pay out would be the same?
Good thing this won’t happen so we don’t have to speculate
Glad to see these great coaches get their bag! Much deserved. Agreed DeSorbo should renegotiate!
Bob made significantly more from his bonuses from France in the Olympics for Leon’s golds.
80,000€ for each French gold medal, or 320,000€ in total. Plus 20,000€ for the relay’s bronze medal.
Meanwhile American coaching staff still doing all that work for free
However, he has to pay the taxes required by the European Union. Just a thought. And then to his home country.
It’s not exactly an apples to apples comparison in theory. Bowman has significantly more experience, and he’s the “Director of Swimming” – whatever that means.
Yes – DeSorbo is highly underpaid. But his contract was made right before one of the most dominant NCAA runs. He’ll have bargaining power in the next negotiation, whereas Bowman has arguably had bargaining power since 2008.
He wasn’t director of swimming at ASU