Coaches’ contracts tell us plenty about UH’s priorities

A glimpse through the keyhole of the closed-door contract negotiations between the University of Hawaii and its football and men’s basketball coaches reveals a lot about where the athletic department appears to be heading.

The numbers in play are a frank admission the Warriors believe they have been overpaying on football and underpaying for hoops and a cash statement of intent to do something about both.

While UH passed on an $850,000-a-year extension proposal from representatives of football coach Greg McMackin, who is contracted at $1.1 million per season, it is offering a considerable bump in base salary to basketball coach Gib Arnold. Arnold’s salary would leap by a reported $100,000 to approximately $345,000, according to people who have been briefed on the talks.

McMackin, the highest-paid coach in the Western Athletic Conference, is in his fourth season, while Arnold was in the bottom half in his rookie year.

When UH changes conferences in 10 months, McMackin figures to be the second highest-paid coach in the Mountain West on base salaries, trailing only Boise State’s Chris Petersen. By then, McMackin will be in the final year of a five-year contract unless he can come to terms with UH, which has deferred action on an extension while the current season plays out.

What UH’s stance on McMackin suggests is that, without the promise of a significant upturn in gate receipts from the 33,227 through the turnstiles it has been averaging the last three-plus seasons, or a compelling run to a WAC title, the Warriors are looking to move into a thriftier salary neighborhood.

Something in the $600,000-$800,000 range, perhaps, which would be within the MWC and nonautomatic qualifying conference ballpark.

It probably didn’t help McMackin’s case when the Warriors lost to Nevada-Las Vegas, whose coach, Bobby Hauck, is the lowest paid in the MWC with a base of $350,000.

Meanwhile, UH has offered Arnold a package that would be far and away the biggest in school history while ranking third in the WAC. It also figures to set the pace in the Big West, where the Rainbow Warriors move for the 2012-13 season.

Long Beach State coach Don Monson, a former Gonzaga and Minnesota head coach, had a $281,004 base this past season and is scheduled to go up to $309,807 for 2012-13. The Big West average for 2010-11 was $201,939, according to a survey.

But UH apparently sees considerable potential in its basketball program based on last season’s 19-13 season and the resulting 38 percent rise in attendance. Enough, apparently, that with a donor assistance component, along the lines of what former football coach June Jones had, it will sign off on a package that could tie up $1 million over three years.

Though officials have maintained the contracts of the two coaches are not linked nor part of a zero sum equation, the parties themselves have sometimes wondered out loud if there is a rob-Greg-to-pay-Gib element here.

Not directly, perhaps, but there is definitely a significant recasting of salary models for the athletic department’s two biggest income producers.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.