Jim Senter Gets New Contract, But Where Does UTEP AD Rank?

Six days ago, a website devoted to college athletic directors dropped a tweet that mentioned UTEP's Jim Senter. Specifically, it said that he received a 30% raise as part of his newly extended contract. Upon closer examination of his new five-year deal, he actually received just slightly more than $50,000 per year, about a 17% raise from his original three-year contract which was to expire at the end of this month. Where does Senter rank among the rest of his peers in Conference USA? The results could surprise you.

The website sportsinfo.com has compiled a terrific database of every college athletic director's contracts and compiled all of them into one spreadsheet. The information includes base salary, other university compensation, non-university compensation, total compensation, and maximum bonus. The most recent data is from the 2019-20 school year. There are actually three ADs who make more than two million dollars per year, led by Notre Dame's Jack Swarbrick, who earns a staggering $2,548,834 annually.

As for C-USA, these figures are based on total compensation. Leading the way is North Texas Director of Athletics Wren Baker, who earns $625,000 per year. Next is Florida International Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment Pedro Garcia, who is making $522,827 annually. Here is the complete list:

Wren Baker                    North Texas         $625,000
Pedro Garcia                  FIU                       $522,827
Camden Wood Selig     Old Dominion      $436,989
Mike Hill                         Charlotte              $400,000
Jeremy McClain             Southern Miss.    $400,000
Lisa Campos                  UTSA                   $395,000
Mark Ingram                   UAB                     $340,000
Mike Hamrick                 Marshall              $329,000
Jim Senter                     UTEP                  $300,000
Brian White                     FAU                     $300,000
Thomas McClleland       La. Tech             $263,000
Chris Massaro                Middle Tenn.      $257,200
Todd Stewart                  WKU                   $195,576
Joe Karlgaard                 Rice                   N/A

There have been some interesting developments over the last year since this information was released. La Tech hired Dr. Eric Wood as their Vice President and Director of Athletics last October and signed him to a five-year contract worth a total of $1.5 million. Todd Stewart's base salary was increased two years ago to $270,000, which was a substantial raise. Although Joe Karlgaard's contract is not public information, you can bet that the Rice Director of Athletics ranks somewhere close to the top of the league in total compensation. His contract also expired this summer, so he was expected to sign a new deal.

As you can tell from the 2019-20 list of all C-USA salaries for Directors of Athletics, Jim Senter still ranked near the bottom of the league. Even with his new contract, Senter still ranks 10th out of 14 C-USA ADs in total compensation. When UTSA hired former UTEP Associate AD Lisa Campos in late 2017, her initial contract was $375,000 per year, which was $75,000 more than UTEP was offering Senter. As of last year, she was close to topping $400,000 and ranked 6th in C-USA in total compensation.

One final note to mention is that UTEP's maximum bonus package is by far, the highest of any school in C-USA. If Senter was to hit every incentive, he would earn an extra $262,500 (based off of the 2019-20 figures). Western Kentucky was next with $171,000 in maximum bonus incentives. So, if the Miners win conference titles on the field and on the court and their athletes perform well in the classroom, Senter will reap the benefits.