UNLV athletic director Erick Harper admitted that the college can solely afford to pay the primary two years of new soccer coach Dan Mullen’s five-year, $17.5 million contract.
Harper made the admission at a Board of Regents assembly final week, telling the group that the athletic division is in at the least $26 million value of debt and will solely afford the primary two years of a contract that pays the previous Florida coach $3.5 million yearly.
“We now have the funds to pay the coach over the following two years,” Harper mentioned. “We now have been working with our donors to help with philanthropic {dollars}. We now have one which has already paid their dedication, and that cash is in an unrestricted line and that will likely be utilized sooner or later to assist with the salaries.”
UNLV employed Mullen in December to interchange Barry Odom, who left for Purdue. The Massive Ten college pays UNLV $3 million to purchase out Odom’s contract, slated to reach in two $1.5 million funds paid over the following two years. Mullen hadn’t coached since 2021, as an alternative working as an analyst for ESPN, after a four-year stint at Florida the place he completed with a 34-15 report that included three top-15 finishes.
Mullen’s contract additionally requires an annual $100,000 retention bonus beginning in 2027 and bonuses starting from $25,000 for taking part in within the Mountain West championship sport to $100,000 for collaborating within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. Making any bowl sport comes with a $75,000 bonus.
2025 school soccer teaching carousel grades: Wealthy Rodriguez’s return to West Virginia earns good mark
Dennis Dodd
Mullen takes over a UNLV program that went 10-3 final season and is taken into account a preseason Group of 5 favourite to make the Faculty Soccer Playoff. Harper mentioned that UNLV has bought an extra 970 season tickets since Mullen’s hiring, placing the full at greater than 5,000 for the Mountain West college.
Harper’s admission the college can solely afford two years of Mullen’s five-year contract is arresting but not with out precedent. When Colorado employed Deion Sanders to a five-year, $29.5 million contract, the college’s AD made the same remark as Harper.
“We do not have the cash but, however I do know we’ll have it so I am not fearful about that piece,” Colorado AD Rick George mentioned after Sanders’ hiring.
The hiring of Sanders, after all, turned a monetary boon for Colorado as CBS Sports activities’ Brandon Marcello detailed final 12 months.
UNLV’s huge guess on Mullen is indicative of the challenges smaller colleges face on this present atmosphere of ever-growing bills. With Energy 4 colleges set to spend as a lot as $20.5 million on income sharing beginning this 12 months if the Home settlement is formally permitted, colleges have the selection to both attempt to sustain in spending or threat falling behind.
It looks like UNLV senses a possibility to capitalize on the Group of 5’s path to the Faculty Soccer Playoff and is spending accordingly. Paying Mullen $3.5 million yearly is a big monetary dedication at that degree, and places him above Energy 4 coaches similar to UCLA’s DeShaun Foster and Arizona’s Brent Brennan. If it would not pan out, that huge quantity of debt Harper detailed to the Board of Regents could solely develop.