Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens has signed a contract extension, but this happened all the way back in October. The extension was never announced, but it was recently reported on the blog UO Matters, run by Oregon economics professor Bill Harbaugh.
Mullens was less than two years into his current contract when he met with UO President Michael Schill, agreeing to a five-year extension that will keep him under contract at Oregon until 2025.
His base salary in the contract is just over $700,000 per year, but it comes packed full with bonus opportunities, including $50,000 for a football bowl game appearance and $25,000 for an NCAA tournament appearance. There are also retention bonuses starting at $100,000 in 2019 and peaking at $1 million in 2024, the final year of the deal. In total, Mullens can earn $1-2 million each year with bonuses factored in.
Schill was likely pleased with the outcome of the athletic department this year as the Ducks finished 9th in the Directors’ Cup, their highest finish in school history. That finish also earned Mullens a $25,000 bonus for finishing among the top 10.
In his blog, Harbaugh basically sounds like a salty academic professor, furious at the school for spending so much money on athletics instead of academics. We’ll just ignore the key role that athletics plays in attracting prospective students to campus, for simplicity.
You can read more on the contract extension, or you can even dive into the full contract.