Big Owl Bucks

Who’s the highest-paid member of the Temple athletic department?

Is it Al Golden? Nope.

Is it Fran Dunphy? Try again.

According to Temple’s self-reported numbers to the U.S. Department of Education and the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification, Coach Dawn Staley is the highest-paid member of the athletic department – and quite possibly the University’s highest-paid employee.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the Owls are strapped for cash, particularly when it comes to paying the head coaches of their marquee teams.

Dunphy and Golden both made more than $500,000 during the 2006-07 academic year, according to research completed by OwlsDaily.com. Staley’s salary topped $750,000.

Get off the floor and I’ll explain the numbers.

Temple does not publish or publicly discuss the salaries of its coaches or athletic department staff members. But certain figures – including the average salaries paid to the head coaches and assistant coaches of its men’s and women’s teams – are required to be reported to the Department of Education in connection with the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. However, those figures are not reported on a sport-by-sport basis.

This year, though, in its report to the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification, Temple included the aggregate and average salary figures of its head coaches and assistant coaches in non-revenue sports, as well as the total salaries paid for men’s basketball and women’s basketball staff members.

By subtracting the 2006-07 salary figures for non-revenue sports (as reported to the NCAA) from the salary figures for all sports (as reported for the EADA), OwlsDaily.com determined Staley’s individual salary and the combined salaries of Dunphy and Golden, as well as the combined salaries for Staley’s staff and all of the assistants for men’s basketball and football.

Here’s the math:

According to the numbers reported to the NCAA, Temple paid $1,369,272 in salaries to its 11 head coaches of women’s teams during the 2006-07 academic year. Separately, Temple reports that its 10 head coaches of women’s non-revenue teams received salaries totaling $490,560 ($49, 056 per coach).

That means Staley earned $878,712 last year.

On the men’s side, the EADA numbers indicate that Temple paid $1,574,937 in salaries to its head coaches of nine men’s teams in 2006-07. Meanwhile, the NCAA report says Temple paid $259,966 to its seven head coaches of men’s non-revenue teams ($37,138 per coach).

That means Dunphy and Golden totaled $1,314,971 between them.

According to an outside source, Dunphy’s salary is probably closer to $700,000 and Golden’s is closer to $600,000.

What about the assistant coaches?

Again, according to the NCAA numbers, Temple paid an aggregate total of $537,247 to the assistant coaches of its women’s teams in 2006-07. The assistant coaches of the women’s non-revenue teams earned $193,268.

That means that Staley’s three assistant coaches – Lisa Boyer, Fred Chmiel, and Darius Taylor – were paid $343,979 between them.

The assistant coaches for all men’s teams were paid $1,601,520, according to the EADA figures. The assistant coaches for men’s non-revenue teams earned $89,493, according to the NCAA report. The other $1,512,027 was split between Dunphy’s three assistants and Golden’s nine assistants (averaging $126,002 per assistant coach).

There is one disconnect in the salary figures reported to the NCAA.

Separate from the other numbers, Temple states that Staley and her assistants earned $1,130,997 in salaries, benefits, and bonuses in 2006-07. Dunphy and his assistants earned $944,800, according to the report.

But if you add Staley’s salary ($878,712) as derived from the aggregate numbers with the combined salaries of her assistant coaches ($343, 979), the total is $1,222,691. That’s almost $100,000 more than is specifically reported in the NCAA report.

The difference might be explained by different reporting periods, particularly since Staley signed a new contract with Temple last year.

And how about that new contract?

In comparing the EADA salary figures for 2005-06 versus 2006-07, Temple reported an increase of $442,412 in salary expenditures for the head coaches of its women’s teams. Most of that would have to be attributable to Staley’s new deal. In fact, it appears that she might have doubled her salary.

On the men’s side, Temple’s salary expenditures for head coaches actually dropped from $1,878,912 in 2005-06 to $1,574,937 in 2006-07. According to an outside source, the difference in those figures ($303,975) likely represents severance pay to Coach John Chaney, who retired following the 2005-06 campaign.

So where do Staley, Dunphy, and Golden rank on the University’s payroll?

Maybe not number one. But at the very least, they’re higher than the chief executive.

According to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education in November 2007, President Ann Weaver Hart earned $505,000 during the previous fiscal year.