USA Today released a study of the salaries of athletic directors at 104 FBS universities. Cincinnati, being a public university, was required to make their athletic director’s information available. According to USA Today, Whit Babcock will make $364,000 in this year of his contract. The actual number isn’t too surprising. Given the gold rush that is college sports, athletic directors now-a-days are paid like executives in traditional corporations. They are not only tasked at maintaining the department but most importantly driving revenue and increasing the visibility of the school.
The important note about that number is that Whit is being paid the least of the athletic directors in the Big East according to FootballScoop. He’s not even hitting the median salary of $400,000 per year and his pay is probably in the lowest quartile of the athletic directors in major AQ programs. Hmm..where have we heard that before? Oh, just about every time a study comes out ranking the salaries of UC figureheads. It’s no secret that Cincinnati has built a reputation of doing more with less. And it’s not a bad thing. In fact it’s a strong reason for any red blooded American to root for such a rags to riches story. Heck it certainly doesn’t hurt. But it’s clear Cincinnati has yet again made a home run hire, this time with Whit Babcock.
In just over a year and a half in his role Babcock has completely overhauled a stagnant athletic department swimming in debt with no vision to pull themselves out other than cutting programs and sitting on their hands until the debt cleared. Furthermore, the employees at the Lindner Center actually like their boss (crazy concept) which is a far cry from the horror stories that were told about Babcock’s predecessor Mike Thomas.
But perhaps his biggest accomplishment to date was addressing the 10 ton elephant in the room Nippert Stadium. Unlike Thomas, who for the most part ran away from the problem, Babcock tackled the issue head on, making it a top priority and understood the benefits of investing in Bearcats football. When the renovations are complete Nippert will go a long way to pulling the athletic department above water financially and pave the way even more riches in the future. The task of even selling the project wasn’t easy but the fact that Babcock was able to get backing for it is impressive.
I was also impressed that he was able to hire Tommy Tuberville away from a Big XII school. Personal reasons aside, the fact that Babcock didn’t reach into the MAC-well once more to hire a football coach speaks volumes. He clearly views the Bearcats as big time and intends to make it a destination program. But he isn’t all-football. Babcock is a former basketball player of course and while he realizes football drives the boat financially, he’s also kept Mick Cronin happy with upgrades to his facilities. Late last Summer Babcock polished off the renovations of UC basketball’s practice gym in the basement of the Lindner Center. The interior of the structure was very bland and because there were few sound absorbers on the walls, there was nothing to prevent echos, which were an annoyance during practices. So Whit installed murals, banners, and sound absorbing pads to spruce up the facility and make it a recruiting tool for Mick rather than a recruiting hindrance.
So again UC is called out for paying their employees the lowest among their competition. That’s not surprising and I’m sure will change in the very near future. What also isn’t surprising is that once again Cincinnati appears to have hired a man who is outperforming his paygrade. Whit Babcock is an exceptional athletic director who has made waves in a short time at UC. And he appears light years better that South Florida’s Doug Woolard who gave Skip Holtz a massive contract extension only to fire him after the following season and can’t get his dates straight. Still, that knucklehead makes $120,000 more than the UC athletic director.
Clearly though the Goode Ship Cincinnati is in excellent hands with Whit Babcock at the helm.