Athletic director job could cost UH $500,000

Advertiser Staff

Between what new athletic director Herman Frazier could earn and what his predecessor, Hugh Yoshida, is still contracted for, the University of Hawai'i might end up paying nearly $500,000 for the position this year.

With incentives and benefits, that means the UH athletic department could end up paying four times last year's total when Yoshida, the only athletic director on the payroll, received $120,000.

Frazier, who signed a three-year agreement upon succeeding Yoshida Aug. 1, receives an annual base salary of $210,000 and could earn an additional $70,000 in bonuses this fiscal year.

Frazier received a signing bonus equivalent to one month's salary ($17,500) to come to Manoa from the University of Alabama-Birmingham. The other bonus provisions in Frazier's contract are capped at three months' salary ($52,500), according to the contract approved by President Evan Dobelle this week.

Meanwhile, Yoshida, who remains with the athletic department undertaking special projects for the department, is contracted to earn $180,000 this fiscal year. Although his three-year deal — the final contract of his nine-plus years as AD — was set to expire in December, Yoshida has been granted paid leave through June 2003.

While incentive provisions are common practice in contracts at most Division I-A schools, UH officials said Frazier is the first AD to receive them at Manoa. Several coaches, including football coach June Jones and men's basketball coach Riley Wallace, have incentive clauses and it is department practice that the coach of a team that qualifies for NCAA postseason play is eligible for a bonus of one month's salary.

According to a survey of its members by the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association, the average AD base salary last year was $187,760 and the average total compensation as $229,577, meaning $41,817 came through bonuses or other income.

Louisville this week signed its AD, Tom Jurich, to a four-year extension that pays a $226,018 base and can bring more than $100,000 in bonuses.

Under terms of Frazier's contract, he can earn the following bonuses if:

• The football team wins a conference championship (one month's salary).
• UH wins a bowl game and makes money ($7,500).
• Men's basketball reaches the NCAA Tournament (one month's salary).
• Men's basketball reaches the Sweet 16 (equivalent to half of the coaches' bonus).
• Men's or women's volleyball teams reach the final four (equivalent to half of the coach's bonus).
• Baseball goes to a regional (one month's salary).
• Baseball reaches the College World Series ($10,000).
• The grade point average of all scholarship athletes is 2.6 or above for both the fall and spring semesters.
• If there are no major NCAA violations in a year ($5,000).
• If UH is ranked in the Top 20 in US News & World Report ($10,000).

Had the incentives been in place last fiscal year, Yoshida may have been eligible for bonuses for the men's basketball team going to the NCAA Tournament, the men's volleyball team reaching the final four, having no major NCAA violations, and appearing in US News & World Report's Top 20.

UH finished the 2001-02 fiscal year with a $1.5 million deficit that was made up by a withdrawal from a so-called "rainy day fund" of previous department surpluses.