Pitt coaches Narduzzi, Capel were university’s top earners
On March 28, Pitt announced that football coach Pat Narduzzi had signed a contract extension through at least the 2030 season, a move that came after a 2021 season in which the Panthers went 11-3 and won the ACC championship.
Even before pen met paper and his new deal was finalized, Narduzzi was doing fine for himself financially.
Narduzzi was Pitt’s highest-paid employee during the 2021 fiscal year, earning $5.64 million in that time, according to tax documents made public by the university Friday. It’s the fifth consecutive year that he has been Pitt’s highest earner.
That total pay is a 17% jump from the $4.81 million he brought in during the 2020 fiscal year. With a base compensation of $3.97 million, Narduzzi also made $1.31 million in bonus and incentive compensation, $100,941 in other reportable compensation, $233,600 in retirement and other deferred compensation, and $19,819 in nontaxable benefits.
According to the same documents, men’s basketball coach Jeff Capel made $3.61 million during that span, an increase from the $3.53 million he brought in during the 2020 fiscal year, which was his second season at the school. He earned $3.47 million in base compensation, $94,367 in other reportable compensation, $22,400 in retirement and other deferred compensation, and $19,368 in nontaxable benefits. Unlike Narduzzi, he didn’t earn any bonus and incentive compensation.
The salaries are from a year-long span running from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, a period that included several of the months in which athletic departments nationally were hit hardest financially bythe COVID-19 pandemic.
Narduzzi and Capel are just two of several athletic department employees who were among the university’s highest earners during the 2021 fiscal year.
Athletic director Heather Lyke made $916,539, making her the third-highest-paid non-officer at the school, behind only Narduzzi and Capel.
Women’s basketball coach Lance White was fifth on that list, with $690,668. Football defensive coordinator Randy Bates made $555,208, former offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who left for the same position at Nebraska last December, made $541,667 and defensive line coach Charlie Partridge made $535,447.
Of the 15 highest-earning non-officers listed in the documents, seven are coaches or athletic administrators.
Among other individuals listed in the document who are not affiliated with the athletic department, university chancellor Patrick Gallagher made$814,494.
It marks the first time in several years that one of Pitt’s top earners was not a coach who was not employed by the university during any of that fiscalyear.
In the 2020 fiscal year, former football offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, who was fired in January 2019, brought in $1 million and former women’s basketball coach Suzie McConnell-Serio, who was fired in April 2018, was paid $490,460. In the 2019 fiscal year, former men’s basketball coach Kevin Stallings, who was fired in March 2018, was the university’ s third highest-paid-employee at $2.54 million. That figure included what was described on the document as a severance payment of $1.95 million.
Numbers reported on IRS 990 forms that detail coaches’ salaries don’t reflect the total amount of money they receive, as many coaches in the major-revenue sports often receive income from additional outside sources.
Narduzzi and Capel being the highest-paid employees at an institution of higher learning is hardly uncommon. In the vast majority of states, the highest-paid public employee is a football or men’s basketball coach.
Unlike many public universities nationally, Pitt is a “state-related institution,” which means it is not subject to open records requests that could procure contracts and salaries for coaches, administrators and other individuals at the school. Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities hold the same distinction, though all four, as nonprofit institutions, are required to file 990 forms annually to the IRS.