Ohio State AD Gets $18,000 Because A Wrestler Won A Title

OSU athletic director Gene Smith will receive a bonus of one week's salary— more than $18,000—because Buckeye wrestler Logan Steiber won his weight class at this weekend's NCAA championships.

It's not uncommon for ADs to have performance bonuses written into their contracts—former USF AD Doug Woolard made a cool $5K last week when the Bulls were selected for the Women's NIT. And it makes sense to incentivize success, even if Smith probably couldn't name a single wrestler on the squad. But please remember this amateur version of executive compensation next time you want to maintain that universities won't be able to afford to pay athletes in revenue sports. (Smith's contract is here, and it's replete with potential bonuses.) As we've hammered home before, the money is already there—administrators and coaches would just have to take reasonable pay cuts.