The state of Bobcat athletics: Budget and salaries on the rise

By Tyler Mayforth

San Marcos — The Texas State athletic department doesn’t hide its intentions well.

Advertisements dot the IH-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin with billboards highlighting the Bobcats’ progress.

Texas State built new baseball and softball facilities and now is renovating the football stadium to be fitted with luxury suites.

It’s a beautification process with a purpose.

Once the NCAA lifts the moratorium on movement between the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), Texas State wants to be the first school in the door.

“When we decided to move to the FBS, a lot of improvements needed to happen,” Texas State athletic director Dr. Larry Teis said. “We didn’t only need to renovate the facilities, but raise funds for them to be easier.”

Texas State is doing a lot cosmetically to make itself attractive to possible FBS conferences.

Yet, most of the work the Bobcats are doing is behind the scenes.

Texas State petitioned to both its large alumni base and current students to help ease the financial burdens. The Bobcats received a more than welcoming response.

Two sizable donations were given to the Texas State athletic department by alumni. Darren B. Casey made the single-largest gift in history to the Bobcat athletic department ($1 million) and two months later, Jerry and Linda Fields followed with their own ($100,000).

“We aren’t able to make this move without support from our alumni,” Teis said at the time. “To receive two huge gifts like these back-to-back says more than our billboards ever can.”

The Fields made another contribution April 24, 2009, to the tune of $1 million.

Secondly, in order to make the move easier, Texas State needed help from its current students.

Texas State proposed an increase in athletic fees in February, for which the students would vote in a referendum setting. The pitch passed with flying colors as 79.6 percent of 5,952 students (4,738) approved.

Once the motion succeeded, it allowed the new source of revenue be added to the athletic department budget.

Texas State’s athletic allowance has increased exponentially over the past four years.

The Bobcats were granted $13,422,782 for 2009. That was an increase of $2,222,143 from the previous year.

Texas State’s $13 million was a far cry from the budgets for 2005 and 2006. The athletic department was given $8,740,963 and $9,414,952, respectively.

“We pull the money from what we’re given by the school, state and students,” Teis said. “From there, we separate it out to where we need it.”

Athletic scholarships are a large chunk of the budget, as more than $3 million was allocated for 2009.

The budget also needs to have room to pay every person within the athletic department. No people are more important to the success of the department than the coaches.

Texas State’s coaches are appropriated a total of $3,833,924.52 in 2009. Bob Stoops, head coach of the Oklahoma football team, is scheduled to make $6.5 million this year.

Yet, the Bobcats coaches’ salaries have increased since 2006, when the department rationed $2.8 million.

“Our goal is to keep pace in the market,” Teis said. “Our salaries are tops in the Southland Conference when it comes to different sports.”

If Texas State’s budget increases, it allows Teis and the athletic department to ration out more money to improve certain sports. That’s the case with men’s basketball.

“One of the sports we really need to boost is men’s basketball,” Teis said. “I put some extra money into the pot this year to allow (Doug) Davalos to get some great assistant coaches.”

Davalos hired Rob Flaska and Terrence Rencher, both of whom came highly recommended. Flaska coached at both Arkansas and TCU, so it might have been necessary to break the bank a little to get him.

Ultimately though, if Texas State wants to compete in the FBS, its salaries need to increase.

The Bobcats would need to double the current salary of head football coach Brad Wright ($161,522.64) to just sniff the Top 100 of highest-paid FBS coaches.

Davalos’ current salary ($102,301.52) may be near the top of the SLC, but would need a hefty raise by the time of a move into the Sun Belt or Conference USA.

Only five of Texas State’s head coaches (Wright, Davalos, Suzanne Fox, Ty Harrington and Ricci Woodard) are under contract.

The Bobcats’ coaches are also promised bonuses ($5,000) should their teams win a regular season or conference tournament championship.

Texas State may need to put more money into the pot after last season, as four of its teams won SLC championships.

“People are graduating kids and winning,” Teis said. “We’re going to try to keep everyone together as long as that's happening and move on to the next party.”

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