Weir gets a raise
But the status of his basketball assistants remains up in air
UNM’s basketball coach will bring home $100K more in the next year of his six-year contract
While the finances of the University of New Mexico athletics department are still being put in order, men’s head basketball coach Paul Weir is getting a raise, but the opportunities for his staffers haven’t yet been determined.
For Weir, a pair of contract clauses worth $100,000 kicked in on Sunday. One is a $50,000 retention bonus, to be paid within 30 days, for still being employed when the new contract year began April 1. He also has received a $50,000 pay raise, and his annual salary and compensation package now totals $675,000.
Meanwhile, for UNM basketball, it’s business as usual as a live recruiting period begins today. Weir, associate head coach Chris Harriman, and assistants Jerome Robinson and Brandon Mason are hitting the road to recruit for next season.
Whether any of the staffers will be here for the coming season, however, may be determined only when Weir and the department have a firm grasp on what exactly they can be offered.
“All three assistant coaches have contracts running through April 30,” Weir told the Journal on Wednesday. “I’ve had several conversations with Eddie (Nuñez, UNM’s athletic director) about what we will be able to provide going forward, but we haven’t finalized anything as of yet. There are obviously much bigger items and dollars at stake for the entire university right now.”
The athletics department budget has not yet been presented for approval by the Board of Regents, but a proposal — part of a group effort of employees from across campus — could be offered as soon as next week.
Last spring, Robinson and Mason signed one-year contracts through April 30. Harriman, who has been the associate head coach at UNM for three seasons, had his three-year contract expire March 31, but was given a one-month extension with the same terms as his previous contract — $230,000 annually ($150,000 in base salary, $80,000
in media obligations) — while the department tends to its overall budget matters.
Per his contract, the 38-year-old Weir’s annual base salary remains $300,000 through the 2022-23 season. Also unchanged throughout the life of the existing contract are the $100,000 he gets through the team’s apparel agreement with Nike and $100,000 for media obligations such as mandatory airtime on Learfield Sports radio and television shows.
His $50,000 raise comes under the “program promotion” portion of his contract, for which he received $125,000 this past season for making “reasonable efforts to promote” the program and athletics department in the community, including meeting with sponsors and donors and any other outreach efforts the athletic director deems necessary.
That jumps to $175,000 this year, $225,000 for the 2019-20 season, $275,000 for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, and $325,000 for the 2022-23 season.
Weir would be paid $825,000 in the 2022-23 season, the last in his six-year deal. Weir’s predecessor Craig Neal earned a base salary and compensation package of $950,000 per season until he was fired March 31, 2017.
The retention bonus is the first of five at $50,000 Weir is scheduled to receive annually, with a $100,000 bonus coming if he completes his sixth season in 2023.