College athletic directors are an important part of the clockwork that makes college sports function smoothly. For those interested in this career path, there is a wealth of information out there regarding typical salaries and job duties of this position. Want to learn more? Follow along for the scoop.
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Basic Job Description
Before taking a look at potential salaries, it’s a good idea to understand the role played by this professional. In short, athletic directors are the managers of all things sporting that involve their employing college or university. They manage the various sports programs and all of their associated administrative necessities. One in this role needs to be a great communicator, be able to work with a wide range of people and manage a wide range of individual concern areas.
All things considered, this truly is a high-responsibility position, but its potential rewards are also great. While this position also typically entails a rich array of side benefits and bonuses, its base pay rate is of the greatest interest to most. This base pay rate, however, does fluctuate greatly from one employing school to the next, much based on the finances and renown of that school’s athletic program. To give the best idea for potential salary rates here, we can look to a number of different resources.
PayScale Figures
PayScale is a highly respected resource in the world of pay rates and compensation research with which we can glean some great information regarding the salaries of today’s athletic directors. According to PayScale’s research, the median yearly pay for an athletic director right now is $74,405. The position’s associated compensation is cited to greatly depend on work experience. In addition, the research company reports average monetary bonuses in the position ranging from $0 to $34,521 and a very high satisfaction rate among those employed in the role.
BLS Figures
The Bureau of Labor Statistics cites today’s athletic director as garnering an average pay rate of about $92,360 per year or $44.41 per working hour. However, it is important to note that the bureau groups this occupation with a number of others into a job group known as “Postsecondary Education Administrators”. While this is an accurate grouping arrangement by the bureau, this can lead to some slight skewing of the representation of the pay rates of the individual jobs found within that category. Regardless, this is another piece of information which can be paired with others in order to determine a general idea of the position’s typical pay rate.
Above-Average Earning Capacity
In some cases, athletic directors make exceptionally more than what is considered average or typical of the profession. A 2013 report on this very subject was published by Business Insider with some very eye-catching salary figures for some in the position. At that time, some of the highest salaries in the field went to the athletic directors of the University of Florida, Louisville, and Vanderbilt with each of these directors making a yearly salary of $1,233,250, $1,411,915, and $3,239,678 respectively. Other impressive earnings just below these figures are also highlighted by the report, and to this day, major players in this role make as much and sometimes even more than reported in the publication.
Athletic directors indeed play a pivotal role in keeping all of the various sports activities of a particular school up and running efficiently. As such, they have the potential to earn some handsome compensation in return. In conclusion, those looking for further information can visit the website of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, a great resource on all things related to collegiate athletic direction today.
