University of Hawaii coaches are now eligible to receive bonuses for their team’s academic performance but also face forfeiting all bonuses for academic deficiencies and NCAA rules violations.
The provisions are new to coaches contracts at the school and are reflected in nearly a dozen contract extensions agreed to over the past six months.
They include agreements with baseball coach Mike Trapasso, men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade and women’s basketball coach Laura Beeman.
The changes, more than a year in the making, come as athletic director Ben Jay and campus officials had sought to standardize so-called "performance incentives."
Being eliminated are clauses that provided bonuses of up to $1,000 for 30-minute autograph sessions, automatic one-year contract rollover for victory thresholds and attendance and season-ticket benchmarks.
Jay said, "I wanted to get away from attendance and autograph-type bonuses and look more at academic performance. That’s something that we are pushing hard with all of our coaches."
Coaches can still receive bonuses for reaching NCAA playoffs or being named conference or national coaches of the year in their sports.
Bonuses of $5,000-$10,000 in many instances can be earned by hitting benchmarks in grade point average and rising into the top half of NCAA Academic progress Rates (APR) in their sport nationally.
Contract language also notes, however, "Coach’s eligibility for the above performance incentives shall be forfeited in a contract year in which a major rules violation (as defined by the NCAA as Level I or II) was reported or if the program is on NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) probation."
Jay said the NCAA rules provision preceeded the current investigation of the men’s basketball etam.
Baseball coach Mike Trapasso, whose new agreement runs through Aug. 2017, said he accepted the changes, "because academics are why the kids are here. They are student-athletes and they are here to get their degrees. We’re here to create an atmosphere where they can succeed academically as well as athletically."
