USA TODAY International Edition
Northwestern pays up for Fitzgerald
Wildcats football coach becomes highest- paid employee at university
Having joined the ranks of perennial college football bowl participants, Northwestern also has joined the ranks of schools at which a coach has the highest annual compensation.
Pat Fitzgerald was credited with more than $ 2.2 million in compensation during the 2011 calendar year, according to the university’s new federal tax return. That is nearly $ 1 million more than he was reported as making in 2010, and the differential is almost entirely in base pay.
In addition, Fitzgerald has received a $ 2.5 million loan from the school as part of his compensation package, and the balance due on the loan grew by nearly $ 70,000 during the university’s fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2012. ( IRS rules require nonprofit organizations to report compensation on a calendar- year basis and other data on a fiscal- year basis.)
Even without the loan, this is the first time since 2005 that Northwestern’s tax return has shown a coach to be the highest- paid employee of the university and its related organizations, according to documents compiled by USA TODAY Sports.
In 2005, then- football coach Randy Walker was credited with nearly $ 1.9 million, but more than $ 1.2 million of that was from a deferred compensation account. In 2004, then- men’s basketball coach Bill Carmody was credited with nearly $ 1.4 million, but $ 600,000 was from a deferred payout. In both years, the school reported other employees with higher annual compensation. The figures for Walker and Carmody come from tax returns dating from 2000 compiled by CitizenAudit. org.
Northwestern’s new return reports Fitzgerald totaling $ 2,221,153 as follows:
u$ 1,972,041 in base pay, about $ 900,000 more than what he received in 2010. None of this money was reported as coming from deferred, or other one- time, pay.
$ 82,500 in bonus and incentive compensation, almost $ 30,000 less than what he received in 2010.
$ 121,041 in other reportable compensation.
$ 24,500 in retirement and other deferred compensation. u$ 21,071 in non- taxable benefits. Fitzgerald’s 2011 compensation moved him ahead of the slightly more than $ 2 million in earnings Northwestern reported for Patrick M. McCarthy, a cardiothoracic surgery professor who also was reported with a little more than $ 2 million in 2010. ( McCarthy is paid primarily by the university- controlled Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation. Beginning with 2008 compensation data, IRS regulations have required that highly compensated employees of non- profits who are being paid by multiple, related non- profits be listed on the tax returns of each group paying them.)
As a private school, Northwestern is not required to make public its employment contracts.
“It is Northwestern University’s longstanding policy not to comment ... about the salaries and compensation of our employees,” university spokesman Bob Rowley said via e- mail.