Bonus babies! University of Hawaii benefits from becoming bowl eligible

Clinching bowl eligibility with the victory over Nevada-Las Vegas on Saturday assured that a lot of Christmas stockings around the University of Hawaii football team will be stuffed with perks this season.

Under terms of individual contracts and NCAA guidelines, everybody from the UH athletic director to the last man on the Rainbow Warriors’ 100-man-plus roster is eligible for some form of bonus or gift.

For the players, the NCAA permits bowl games to provide roster members with items valued at up to $550 (more for each step in the College Football Playoff process). In recent years, that has usually come to take the form of visits to so-called “gift suites,” where players may select from a variety of items, including electronics.

Last year, for example, the SoFi Hawaii Bowl provided “gift suite” visits as well as Oakley sunglasses, a backpack, a Tori Richard aloha shirt, shorts, swim trunks, performance clothes and a beach towel.

Bowl appearance bonus provisions for coaches are a common perk in major college football. At its introduction at UH, athletic department officials said it was a way to reward coaches as well as compensate them for extra work beyond the regular-season schedule and over the holidays.

Head coach Nick Rolovich earns $20,000 if the ’Bows participate in a bowl game or $40,000 if they win a bowl game. Participation in a non-playoff New Year’s Six bowl game would be worth $300,000, or $500,000 if UH wins it. Appearing in a Football Bowl Subdivision College Football Playoff game would bring $750,000.

Rolovich’s contract says he is entitled to a bonus equal to the highest goal achieved, not combined.

UH’s 10 assistant coaches are also eligible to receive what amounts to about one month’s salary for what Board of Regents policy describes as “performance incentives” for teams appearing in a bowl game or NCAA postseason event. Regents policy says, “non-head coaches and administrators shall not exceed one-twelfth of their respective annual base salary and shall only be awarded upon approval of the chancellor, as recommended by the respective campus athletics director.”

AD David Matlin’s contract allows him to be considered for an overall $60,000 bonus based on the department’s achievements across multiple targeted sectors, including bowl games and NCAA tournament appearances, at the discretion of the Manoa chancellor.