Tubby Smith has guaranteed compensation of about $1,775,000 this year but could be rewarded further. Gophers’ athletic director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners that his basketball coach’s contract positions Smith to earn additional compensation for team achievements such as winning the Big Ten Conference title or qualifying for the NCAA tournament.
A regular season league title gives Smith $250,000, while winning next month’s conference tournament championship will provide $100,000, Maturi said. If the Gophers make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005, Smith receives $100,000. Success in the tourney provides these rewards: Sweet 16, $50,000; Elite eight, $75,000; Final Four, $250,000; NCAA title: $500,000.
Smith didn’t earn such bonuses last year in his first season as Gophers coach. His team finished 20-14 overall, 8-10 in the Big Ten and sixth place in the conference standings.
Much improved this season, the Gophers are 18-4 overall, 6-4 in the conference. They are tied for third place in the standings after Wednesday night’s embarrassing 76-47 loss to first place Michigan State. Minnesota is ranked No. 19 in the country and has eight remaining conference games before playing in the Big Ten Tournament that begins March 12 in Indianapolis.
While the Gophers are more unlikely than preseason favorites Michigan State and Purdue to win the regular season conference title, they have to be included among several contenders. Unless Minnesota enters a long losing streak, the Gophers seem likely to be invited to the NCAA tournament where their profile already includes nearly 20 wins and victories over three top 25 teams, Louisville, Ohio State and Illinois.
Compensation incentives like Smith’s are common now in major college football and basketball. At Kentucky, where Smith coached prior to Minnesota, his teams won five SEC titles and played in 10 NCAA tournaments. He won one national title at Kentucky and his teams made the NCAA tourney Elite Eight three times, and Sweet 16 twice.
The Gophers play at Ohio State tomorrow night before a home game against Indiana on Tuesday at Williams Arena. The Gophers and Buckeyes are tied for third place in the Big Ten with 6-4 records.