FiT Publishing

The chime of a new email went initially unnoticed as Sarah Fletcher finished reading yet another reporter’s critique of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). It had been six weeks since UAB president Ray Watts announced the decision to discontinue the university’s Division I football program. While the proverbial dust had settled, some stakeholder groups1 remained discontent following the controversial decision to become the first Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) program to disband in nearly 20 years. As the director of marketing for the UAB athletic department, Fletcher felt...Read more

The paper estimates the key determinants of compensation for head football coaches in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision (the former D-IA) during the years 2006- 2010. Coaching compensation is regressed on variables capturing a coach’s personal characteristics, productivity, and institutional characteristics. The results yield seven important explanatory variables. Four are coach specific: BCS ranking, recruiting success, lifetime winning percentage, and years of experience. The remaining three are institutional: football revenue, enrollment, and graduation rate. No estimate of a...Read more