The Georgia Tech football team’s APR score was worth a hefty bonus for coach Paul Johnson. Basketball coach Josh Pastner, meanwhile, has made the easiest $100,000 he may ever make.
Because of their teams’ APR scores, released Wednesday, both coaches will receive $100,000 bonuses. Both Pastner and Johnson have clauses in their contracts that reward them with bonuses for APR scores. Pastner receives $25,000 for a score above 930, $50,000 for scoring above 940 and $100,000 for 951 or better. Johnson’s contract is essentially the same, although his team’s scores can be equal to 930, 940 and 950.
The football team scored a 983, while the basketball team earned a 970. The quirky aspect of the bonus for Pastner is that the APR score measures academic performance over a four-year period, in this case the 2012-13 through 2015-16 academic years. Pastner was hired at Tech in April 2016, meaning he oversaw Tech’s basketball players’ academic performance for about the final month of that four-year span. Should Pastner and former Tech coach Brian Gregory cross paths on the recruiting trail, Pastner ought to treat him to dinner at the most expensive restaurant Gregory can find, not to mention the team’s academic support staff (not to mention the team members who did the schoolwork).
The benchmarks themselves seem a bit outdated or generous, as a 930 score is nothing to celebrate. It is now the minimum score required to participate in postseason play. If the football team were to score a 930, it would be the lowest-achieving team in FBS. Likewise, a 930 would tie for the 12th lowest in Division I men’s basketball. Still, for both Pastner and Johnson, a 931 would be worth $50,000.
At least in Johnson’s contract, the benchmarks are holdovers from his original contract, signed in December 2007, when the APR had just begun and only two sets of scores had been announced. In the most recently announced APR report at the time of his hire, 16 power-conference teams were below 930 and 17 were at 950 or higher.
In the scores announced Wednesday, the national average for FBS teams was 966. Of the 14 ACC teams, 13 were at 950 or higher, the laggard being Florida State at 939.
To Johnson’s credit, he has helped effect significant improvement in the team’s academic performance. In his tenure, the Yellow Jackets have earned three Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA and missed by one point earning a fourth in the scores announced Wednesday.
However, the levels that the Tech team has been required to attain for Johnson to earn his bonus have remained static through three extensions, at the end of the 2008, 2009 and 2014 seasons, as scores nationwide have improved. In fact, in the most recent extension, the bonus amounts were increased by $25,000.
Johnson and Pastner are hardly alone. Arizona State football coach Todd Graham reportedly triggered a $320,000 bonus for his team making a 970 or better. Because Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari’s team scored better than 975 (the Wildcats were a perfect 1,000), he reportedly collected an extra $50,000. Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino will reportedly receive a $100,000 bonus for his team’s perfect single-year APR score of 1,000; it needed to be over 950 for the bonus.
Johnson also hit the other bonus clause related to academic performance, for the NCAA-measured graduation success rate. With a team rate of 78 percent, Johnson met the incentive of 70 percent or higher for a $125,000 bonus. That statistic also reflects the change in academic performance that Johnson has helped lead. When Johnson was hired, Tech’s most recent score was 48 percent.
He also earned a $100,000 bonus for making an ACC “tier one” bowl, namely the TaxSlayer Bowl, and an additional $75,000 for winning the bowl game.
Pastner earned an extra $50,000 for on-court incentives — $35,000 for being named ACC coach of the year and $15,000 for receiving an invitation to the NIT. The NIT bonus is available only for the first three years of his contract.
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