From record audience numbers for the Women’s NCAA Tournament in college basketball and FIFA Women’s World Cup, to equal pay for the athletes of Team USA, women’s sports are on the rise.
Are coaches’ salaries on the rise, too?
The short answer — in Utah and elsewhere — is yes.
“It is ticking up,” said Scott Hirko, assistant professor of sport administration and management at Wayne State University, and scholar-in-residence for the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
But there’s a catch.
In a study of coaching salaries at Power 5 and Group of 5 schools, Hirko found that although the salaries of coaches of women’s sports increased on average between 2014 and 2021, the rate of increase was slower compared to coaches of men’s sports. The study, which used data from the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database, has been submitted for peer review.
Salaries for men’s sports went up by 54.8% at Power 5 schools and 36.5% at Group of 5 schools, per study data provided to The Salt Lake Tribune. But for women’s sports, salaries increased just 32.6% at Power 5 schools and 30% at Group of 5 schools.
At the University of Utah, Utah State and Weber State, the trend is even more drastic between 2014 and 2021, per data from the United States Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis. Average head coaching salaries for men’s athletics teams increased 50% at the University of Utah, 259.8% at Utah State and 71.9% at Weber State.
Average salaries for women’s teams at those respective schools went up 40.3%, 95.1% and 31% between 2014 and 2021.
At the three aforementioned schools, slightly more men coach women’s athletics teams compared to women. At Utah’s nine women’s sports programs that are not considered co-ed, five of the coaches are men. At Utah State’s seven women’s programs, three are men. Weber State also has seven women’s programs, and three of those coaches are men as well. The total is 12 men coaching women’s teams versus 11 women coaching them.
“While there are a lot of women’s coaches at the very beginning after Title IX, it quickly decreased,” Hirko said. “Now we’re at the point that there are more men’s coaches of women’s teams than women’s coaches of women’s teams.”
Lynne Roberts, who has coached women’s basketball at the University of Utah since the 2015-16 season, said that when she was recruited by former athletic director Chris Hill, she was a successful mid-major coach at the University of the Pacific. She left for Utah for a significant pay bump, but her salary was still below market value at the time — a practice she said she has experienced throughout her career and is “fine” with.
Roberts said she has seen a shift when it comes to paying coaches of women’s sports more, but there’s a “reluctancy” nationally to do so.
“Athletics is a business,” Roberts said. “If you don’t have to pay somebody a lot, why would you? ... I feel like women’s athletics is stuck in that.”
When she has been on previous job searches, Roberts has always wanted to land at a place where women’s basketball actually mattered. Too often, she said, schools view women’s athletics in general as a “necessary evil ”and something that siphons funds away from revenue sports like football. Her current school isn’t like that, though.
“I don’t sense that whatsoever from the institution here,” Roberts said.
Scott Lewis, co-founder of the Association of Title IX Administrators, said a sport’s popularity is what will likely lead to a coach’s pay increasing.
“As women’s sports has become more popular, you’re going to start to see the coaches’ salaries go up, and that will be a trickle effect, if you will,” Lewis said. “But it’ll start with the sports that are more popular. ... Certainly where TV money gets involved, they’ll be able to command more.”
Lewis said two main factors dictate an increase in compensation for coaches who run college women’s sports programs: the market, and a university’s desire to focus on a particular spot. There’s no evidence — at least not yet, Lewis said — of universities paying coaches of women’s programs more merely because salaries have historically been on the lower end for those programs.
“I have not seen that,” Lewis said. “Not that it doesn’t exist. I just ... haven’t heard any of them say, ‘We’re going to be the school that does that.’”
At the U., Utah State and Weber State — the women’s basketball coach is the highest paid. In 2022, Roberts made $679,500; Aggies coach Kayla Ard made $215,000; and Wildcats coach Jenteal Jackson made $130,000, per contract details obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune via public records request.
The lowest head coaching salaries at those universities range from $80,000 at Utah State (cross country) to $50,400 at the U. (beach volleyball) and $40,896.54 at Weber (golf).
Coaches who lead “non-revenue” sports — such as softball, tennis, and cross country — don’t get paid as much. Other sports like football and basketball need to schedule non-competitive games against top schools so the university can get a payout and fund other athletics programs — including salaries.
For example, Utah State received nearly $2 million for its football team to play Alabama in 2022. At the time, coach Blake Anderson called the practice a “necessary evil.” “We’ve got an athletic department that we’ve got to fund, and this is something that we have got to do,” Anderson said.
Amy Hogue coaches softball at the U. While that is a non-revenue sport, the team has seen tremendous success during her 17-year tenure. She commanded a $120,400 salary in 2022 because of it, and likely stands to make more in the future. The softball program recently started charging for tickets to games, which she said had never been done before.
Hogue thinks the softball program itself can do more in order to continue gaining independence.
“I hope we’re starting to pull a little bit of our weight because they certainly have, over the years, supported us as a non-revenue sport,” Hogue said, adding that she feels happy about how supported she is by the university. “That’s our goal — to be able to be free-standing and not need as much because we’re bringing in a lot.”
Zooming out, Weber State pays coaches of women’s sports a higher proportion of money when compared to its entire expenditure for all of athletics. Those salaries make up 3.7% of the school’s athletics expenses, per an analysis of by The Tribune.
Utah State’s salaries for those coaches make up 2.2% of total athletics expenses, while the U. spends 1.5% of its athletics expenses on women’s coaches’ salaries.
Roberts thinks the next sports that could see a rise in popularity akin to women’s basketball are women’s soccer and women’s volleyball. In Utah, the women’s volleyball teams at the university level are some of the most talented in the country. Utah State, for instance, just re-signed its coach, Robert Neilsen, to a multi-year deal at $150,000 per year through 2026.
Neilsen is an example of a coach demanding a certain salary figure due to their success and market value. USU athletic director Diana Sabau, who was hired in August, said one of her goals is to make sure to keep coaches like Neilsen in Cache Valley.
“As a coach continues to achieve success, obviously they become more sought after in their sport of expertise,” Sabau said. “I wouldn’t be surprised at the end of this season if [Neilsen] is sought after again because of his success. That’s fantastic for us and our program. But we also have to be in the right financial stability and state of mind to try to continue to retain them.”
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