Slackin’ Off: Dino Babers salary

Discussions about coaching salaries are common for Syracuse Orange fans so when USA Today posted their annual college football head coach salaries update it got us talking about Dino Babers. With Babers sitting next to last among ACC head coaches (but within striking distance to others) and Syracuse enjoying sucess should John Wildhack be looking at extending and/or bumping up Dino’s compensation? We discussed some ideas in our internal Slack channel

Extend Dino?

Rumors speculate that Dino signed a 6-year deal, but no one’s confirmed the length of his initial contract. That being said, should Wildhack be approaching Babers to extend him now?

“He’s gotta get extended soon, assuming we stay on track for 8 or so wins.”

“Yeah, I gotta imagine as soon as the FSU win hit the books they started thinking of an extension”

Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

How much should Syracuse offer Dino?

We’ve been spoiled by the Boeheim Discount so in this new era of HC salaries what seems reasonable for Syracuse to offer Dino?

“Do we think Dino signs another long term deal if we’re only raising his $$ by 500K? Or do we need him to get a 3 before the decimal to get him to stay? He seems to like ‘Cuse well enough but he’s too guarded to ever get a real feeling.”

“I think we have to go 3+ and increase his pool for assistants.”

“I think we need to get Babers into the 7th to 8th in the ACC range”

“When I had the conversation the other day, I told my buddy $3.5 and another half mil for his people and Dino stays. 4+ puts him in relatively elite company, outside of an outlier like a Lovie [Smith, Illinos].”

“I def think that’s Dino’s number (maybe a little more for assistants or a growing pool) but if we’re begging for sales after a 4-1 start, I can’t imagine we have that much money on hand. Especially if the Dome construction is all coming out of Athletics’ pocket.”

Which P5 schools should we potentially be worried about?

We know Orange fans are constantly worried about coaches leaving (even though the only two who have done it since the Dome opened are Coach Mac and Doug Marrone). Should Syracuse be worried about Dino trying to leave?

“Strangely, if he wants a place to cement a legacy, he’s in a solid spot here. Savior of the program, ACC funding, indoor surface.”

“I think the real question is Do we feel that with Dino, Syracuse is a top half ACC Football Program? If so, then maybe he sticks around about and waits to see if a “ELITE” job opens”

“It doesn’t feel like we have too many huge jobs set to open as of now, which helps. My biggest worry is some shitty Big Ten or Big 12 school deciding to just godfather offer him.”

“Because in reality, Syracuse is tailor made for him to run his ideal team. No one in the Big 10 is going to go for that. I could see a Pac 12 team knocking sooner than later, though.”

“PAC 12 is weirdly my biggest worry.”

“I’m terrified Wazzu gives Leach one more year and then finally cuts ties and they go Dino.”

“Illinois is paying Lovie $5 mill a year that scares me a bit”

Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Are we concerned about the total staff compensation budget?

Another long-running rumor is that Syracuse football coaches have been more limited by their assistant coach/staff salary pool than their own compensation. Is this a valid concern?

“I’m more concerned with the total staff pool. Paying a HC a lot doesn’t make sense if you force them to hire shitty asst coaches to stay within budget”

“Sure thing, I would be right now, the total $$ for football coaches is prob around $4 mil? Need that number up around $5 I think to keep Dino and his boys around”

“Total staff pool would be much bigger killer if Babers hadn’t brought his own inexperienced guys”

What are your thoughts, TNIAAM? Clearly this is a topic that everyone has feelings on, so share yours in the comments.