Purdue football coach Jeff Brohm, basketball coaches Matt Painter and Sharon Versyp and athletic director Mike Bobinski will voluntarily take 20-percent pay cuts and forego incentives for a year as part of the athletic department's financial response to a fall without football and other fall sports, the school announced Tuesday.
“As we face unprecedented medical and financial uncertainty, we’ve been focused on strategies to limit the impact on the support we provide our student-athletes, and that best protect the long-term interests of coaches and staff,” Bobinski said in a released statement. “Our current reality required that some uncomfortable and difficult decisions be made and I’m grateful for the understanding and resilience shown by our entire team of coaches and staff.”
Other coaches working on contracts — revenue-sport assistant coaches among them — have agreed to 15-percent salary reductions, per Purdue.
Purdue's need to cut costs — the same situation everyone in the Big Ten is in amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and following the postponement of fall sports — is expected to affect the entire athletic department, in the form of reductions in pay ranging from 5 to 50 percent, furloughs, reduction-in-force layoffs or reduction in payable work hours. Purdue's release Tuesday indicated such decisions are made based on pay scale and projected responsibilities in the year to come, among other factors.
Bobinski said in a release that these measures, as well as a freeze put on unfilled positions within the department, should save Purdue around $5 million.
Still, Bobinski has indicated he expects to need third-party assistance of some kind, as well, to bridge this financial gap this year. Already, Purdue has curbed spending in the form of purchases, facility projects, etc, and has launched its "More Than A Game" fund-raising campaign, as well, in conjunction with the John Purdue Club. The More Than A Game campaign aims to generate private donations to ease the burden of current circumstances.
Purdue's revenue-sport coaches and Bobinski, along with other coaches and administrators, have pledged to donate $1 million to the campaign, per Purdue's announcement.
Purdue's athletic department operating budget topped $100 million in 2018-19. Bobinski has said he anticipates a shortfall of around $50 million without media rights payouts tied to football, game-day revenue and such.
The Big Ten is expected to announce soon plans for a winter or spring football season.
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