Two thumbs up. BP is off to a strong start.
From the Vindy:
When Jim Tressel was hired as Youngstown State’s president last May, he decided to take less than his predecessor.
Bo Pelini did the same.
While Pelini will (famously) spend the next four years making millions not to coach at Nebraska, he voluntarily gave up about $65,000 per year in his four-year YSU contract in marketing compensation (which is worth $50,000 per year) and retirement benefits. That’s money that counts against his Nebraska buyout but won’t go into his pocket.
“When we were going through the whole interview process, Bo heard what President Tressel did and he took it upon himself to give back,” Penguins athletic director Ron Strollo said. “He wanted to follow the same lead.”
Tressel makes $300,000 per year as YSU’s president, taking $75,000 less than the school’s two previous presidents David Dunn and Cynthia Anderson.
Pelini’s base salary at YSU over the next four years will be $213,894, the same as the Penguins’ previous coach, Eric Wolford. Per the terms of his Nebraska buyout, Pelini will still make $128,009 per month from the Cornhuskers over the next 46 months, so it’s not like he’s going to struggle to make his mortgage payments, but as Strollo said, “that $65,000 is real money he’s giving up.
“Bo understood that the school is laying people off and he wanted to make that statement,” Strollo said. “People internally understand what he did, but I think it’s important that the public knows because everyone assumes Nebraska is making up the difference [in the $65,000].”
YSU’s budget for assistant coaches will remain the same as it did under Wolford, so that $65,000 in savings will simply lower YSU’s football budget.
“That helps the institution because it lowers the support it has to give us,” Strollo said. “I feel like it was really unselfish of him. It’s something he didn’t have to do and he volunteered to do it himself.”
http://www.vindy.com/news/2015/may/17/pelini-follows-tressel-lead-on-less-pay/