The Bret Bielema Contract with the University of Arkansas Released
He said at the time of his hiring the money wasn’t that much more than what he was getting at Wisconsin and he was telling the truth. Bret Bielema’s contract with the University of Arkansas is certainly more money, but not massive amounts more.
Bielema’s base salary for this football season, according to the contract he signed only a few weeks ago is $2.95 million in public/private funds and another $250,000 in funds from the Razorback Foundation. He made a little more than $2.6 million in Madison last season.
His new contract with the University of Arkansas, based on the minimum salary of $2.95 million, would place Bielema 14th on the list of coaches’ pay in the country. When you add in the announced $250,000 additional guarantee from the Razorback Foundation, Bielema moves to 12th in the nation. The complete list, as updated in July by USA Today is available here.
Among SEC coaches, Bielema is tied for fifth in pay or fourth with the Razorback Foundation payment.
NBC Sports has this to say about the Bret Bielema contract and the SEC salaries:
Last season with the Badgers, his seventh season in Madison, Bielema made just over $2.6 million.
The $2.95 million figure would’ve placed Bielema behind Alabama’s Nick Saban($5.5 million), LSU’s Les Miles ($3.9 million), South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier($3.6 million) and Auburn’s Gene Chizik ($3.6 million) in the SEC contractual pecking order. While Chizik’s involuntarily departed The Plains following the 2012 season, Georgia’s Mark Richt received a contract extension as well as a raise this past February that will push his compensation from $2.81 million in 2012 to $3.2 million in 2013, leaving Bielema tied for fifth in the conference in the salary arms race; in July of this year, Florida’s Will Muschamp was given a raise that will pay him the same $2.95 million in 2013.
If Bielema were to be fired between now and the end of the 2015 season, UA would owe the coach a whopping $12.8 million. That total decreases by $3.2 million from thereon out through the end of the contract. Conversely, Bielema would owe the university $3 million if he decided to leave at some point this year, with that sum dropping by $500,000 annually.
A copy of the contract in its entirety is available here.