Section D. Coach and Staff Numbers and Salary Expenditures
Similar to a number of peer institutions, Hamilton coaches rarely work as a single-sport coach with one team—almost all actually coach or assist another team or serve as a physical education instructor. Of note, Hamilton coaches serve as a head coach/assistant coach or head coach/phys ed instructor a higher percentage of the time than their peers.
Hamilton is the only school in which all coaches have faculty status with rank, but one must remember that Hamilton does have a physical education requirement, full-time coaches are required to teach, and physical education enrollment as a percentage of the student body is the highest among the 11 schools (61% to the median of 31%)—all of which are not the case at every school. While the report did not find a direct correlation between faculty status and coaching salaries, it did find that years of service to an institution were the strongest determinant of an individual coach’s salary. Therefore, it should be of no surprise that because Hamilton coaches tend to have fewer years of service (11 years versus the median of 15 years), our median salary is lower than the peer group median salary ($46,499 versus $51,000). But Hamilton is at the peer median for both minimum salary and maximum salary. A final note- the report did not find a particular sport for which a head coach automatically earns the highest salary; instead, a variety of sports can boast the highest paid coach at the schools.
Hamilton’s headcount for its athletics staff is smaller than that of the peer institutions. While the size of the full-time coaching staff is about average, we employ a much smaller number of part-time coaches and a much greater number of grad assistants/interns/volunteers. Also, Hamilton’s full-time and part-time athletics staff headcount is less than the median. In sum, the total athletics headcount at Hamilton is 55, while the median total headcount is 61, with a low of 46 and a high of 79.
The report breaks down full-time equivalencies of all coaching and staffing positions. The only figure of note in which Hamilton deviates from the mean is total teaching FTE; the following are relatively close to the median: total coaching FTE, total staff FTE, total FTE.
In terms of salary and benefit expenditures, Hamilton ranks below the median for every indicator- total coach salary, total coach benefits, total staff salary, total staff benefits, total salary expenditures, total benefit expenditures. Hamilton’s figures total staff salary and total staff benefits are particularly low in comparison to the other 10 schools, while total coach salary is only slightly less than the median. Finally, Hamilton’s salary expenditures for the entire athletic enterprise rank second to last: $1,294,400 versus the median of $1,625,500.
