Miles’ season lucrative, may be worth more
A year ago, Les Miles’ name was being widely bandied about as the next coach at Michigan, his alma mater.
In the wake of an 11-2 season that ended with a Cotton Bowl victory and a top-10 national ranking, Miles stayed. Within days, LSU unveiled a new deal laden with bigger performance-based incentives for Miles and three more years added onto the term of his contract.
It seems for the coach and the school, the investment has paid off handsomely.
With his team ranked No. 1 in all the major polls and sporting a 13-0 record, Miles has so far earned $400,000 in performance bonuses on top of his current $3.751 million annual salary. Miles earned $200,000 for getting his team in a BCS bowl game, $100,000 for playing in the Southeastern Conference Championship game and another $100,000 for his team winning the SEC title contest. He’ll earn another $100,000 if LSU beats No. 2 Alabama on Jan. 9 in the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans.
Such a victory would trigger an even more lucrative clause in Miles’ contract, just as it did when he led LSU to the BCS national championship in January 2008 against Ohio State. It’s a clause that could be worth upward of $1 million.
As then, Miles’ contract stipulates that if LSU wins a national championship he will receive $1,000 more than the highest paid coach in the SEC. Currently that’s Alabama’s Nick Saban, who according to USA Today earned $4.683 million this season.
Based on that, Miles stands to make an extra $933,000 if he were to be paid $1,000 more than Saban. However, it’s possible Saban’s contract could increase as well and Miles’ salary could be even higher.
Either way, based on this year’s figures, Miles would rise from the nation’s fourth-highest paid coach overall to the second highest behind only Texas’ Mack Brown.
According to USA Today, Brown made $5.192 million this season. Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops ranked third, just ahead of Miles at $4.075 million.
Based on the current landscape of college football, it’s hard to argue that Miles wouldn’t have earned the money.
If LSU wins the national championship, Miles would join Saban and new Ohio State coach Urban Meyer as the only active college coaches with multiple national championships on their ré sumé. Meyer, who reportedly will make $4 million per year at Ohio State plus incentives, won two BCS titles while at Florida.
And while LSU is facing millions in budget cuts on the academic side, according to a report from Forbes.com, LSU and Nebraska were the only two athletic programs in the nation that received no state financial aid and also gave money back to the academic side of their universities over a recent four-year period.
“Coach Miles’ contract is very clear on what will happen to his salary (if LSU wins) and it will be very well deserved,” LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva said. Alleva went on to say he anticipates “some adjustments” will also have to be made to the salaries of some of Miles assistants “because they will be in high demand in other places” but did not elaborate.
Miles, 58, is nearing the end of his seventh season at LSU. His overall record of 75-17 includes one national championship, two SEC titles, a third appearance in the SEC Championship Game, five seasons of 11 wins or more, a 5-1 record in postseason games and what will be at the very least LSU’s fifth top-10 finish in the final polls.
Miles’ current winning percentage of .815 at LSU is second highest in SEC history behind only that of former Tennessee coach Robert Neyland (.829).
If the Tigers beat Bama to finish 14-0, they will become LSU’s first undefeated team since 1958 and set an LSU single-season record for victories.
The 2003 team went 13-1 under Saban en route to that year’s BCS title.