Miller tops athletics’ payroll
Editors note: This is part one of a series of seven articles examining faculty and staff salaries at Eastern.
At $133,000 a year, men’s basketball coach Mike Miller is the highest paid coach at Eastern.
The salaries for the men’s basketball and women’s basketball coaches are both above average for OVC head coaches, while the salary for football head coach Bob Spoo is below average.
Athletic Director Barbara Burke works with administration to set salaries. Burke and the administration look at the national scale, as well as the OVC yearly report for comparisons to coaches in the same conference. Burke makes sure they look at the marketplace for coaches to ensure the coaches are paid fairly and competitively.
Miller makes $36,000 more annually than the average men’s basketball coach in the OVC, who makes about $97,000 a year. Although Miller gave the Panthers their first winning season since 2003 in 2009 with an overall record of 19-12, this past season the Panthers had a record of 9-20 with 4-14 in the conference.
Miller said he plans to make next season more successful. Miller said he has nine men working out now, and plans to bring in some new players in the fall.
“This is by far the best offseason since I’ve been coaching here,” Miller said.
Miller said he tries not to look too far into the future, but to just focus on now.
“The nature of the business is to worry about the position you have,” Miller said. “I have not completed what I set out to do yet. We want to do things that haven’t been done.”
Burke said she wants Eastern to be successful in athletics. Also, she said she has different expectations for each sport.
“We have to have more patience and look at the whole picture with our coaches,” Burke said.
Burke said Eastern wants to keep Miller as the basketball coach because he has done many positive things for the program.
“I’m asking for patience,” Burke said. “When the time is right, I will make the best decision for the program. I want to try to help our coaches be successful. We can’t financially get rid of every coach that has one bad season.”
Spoo’s salary below average by choice
Following closely behind Miller with the second highest salary at Eastern is Spoo.
The average football coach in the OVC makes $130,000 per year. Spoo makes $125,000 annually, which is $7,000 less than Miller and $5,000 less than the OVC average.
Burke said Spoo has never asked for anything more.
In the past 10 years, Eastern has made the playoffs seven times and won the conference twice. Eastern football consistently ranks among the top half of the conference year-to-year.
Spoo has a career record of 142-121-1 in 24 seasons, with a record of 67-38 in the 15 seasons the team has been in the OVC. Spoo has led the Panthers to capture five conference championships since 2001.
Spoo has the most wins of any coach in Eastern history, and is the active leader in wins among OVC coaches.
Spoo said all coaches put pressure on themselves to win.
“Every coach is in it to win,” Spoo said. “And if a coach is consistently not winning, there will be some pressure, but most comes from within.”
Spoo said recruiting is one of the most important parts of keeping a program successful.
“Recruiting is the life blood of any program,” Spoo said. “We have to recruit to survive.”
Sallee makes $40,000 less than men’s coach
Women’s basketball head coach Brady Sallee earns the third highest salary at approximately $96,000 per year, which is $8,000 more per year than the average women’s basketball coach in the OVC.
In 2009, Sallee led the Panthers to a 20-game home win streak that ranked as high as fourth in the nation. Since 2007, Sallee has an overall record of 87-46.
Like Spoo, Sallee said recruiting is the biggest part of coaching that people do not understand.
“It’s a 365-day job,” Sallee said. “I spend a lot of time on the road and in hotels, chasing down potential players.”
Outside of football and men’s and women’s basketball, Eastern also has sports that do not receive as much funding because of popularity and the availability of funds.
Some Eastern’s coaches, such as track and field director Tom Akers, have to coach both the men’s and women’s team.
Tennis, golf and swimming have one coach for both men’s and women’s teams with no paid assistants.
Burke said the new strategic plan has a proposal to increase the staffing for sports like tennis, golf and swimming. Burke wants to give more support to these sports.
“It’s the million dollar question,” Sallee said when asked why certain sports rank over others financially and in popularity.
Not only are the coaches at the university judged based on performance, but overall excellence.
“We expect coaches to be consistently competitive and successful, we expect academic excellence, community service and good behavior from all coaches and student athletes,” Burke said.
Abby Alligire can be reached at 581-7944 or alallgire@eiu.edu
