New University of Texas associate head swimming coach Erik Posegay will make an annual base salary of $120,000 according to an offer letter obtained from the University of Texas.
While Posegay does not have a contract, the offer letter outlines his pay package. In addition to the base salary, he received a relocation allowance of $20,000, a moving stipend of $2,000, and a temporary housing allowance of $7,000.
He is also eligible to participate in Texas’ Exceptional Performance Incentives plan, which is at the discretion of the Director of Athletics.
The plan makes him eligible for the following bonuses:
- Conference Championship* – 5% of base ($6,000)
- Top 15 placement at NCAAs – 10% of base ($12,000)
- Top 10 at NCAAs – 12.5% of base ($15,000)
- Top 4 finish at NCAAs – 15% of base ($18,000)
- Top 2 finish at NCAAs – 17.5% of base ($21,000)
- National Champion – 25% of base ($30,000).
Note that Texas’ men’s team has won 44 consecutive conference championship meets, but will move into the more-competitive SEC next season. He is only eligible for the bonus that applies to the team’s best finish at the NCAA Championships.
Posegay was announced as the new associate head coach of the Texas men’s team in April, reuniting him with Texas’ new Director of Swimming Bob Bowman. The two previously worked together at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.
Most recently, Posegay served as USA Swimming’s National Junior Team Director and National Coach.
Posegay held the National Junior Team Director role for over two years, taking over that position in March 2022, and was promoted to add the National Coach title in September 2023.
In lockstep with Bowman being among the highest-paid head coaches in the country, Posegay becomes one of the highest-paid assistants in the country. His salary matches the $120,000 that Dave Marsh is receiving at Cal.
His salary is 33% higher than the most-recently provided salary for women’s associate head coach Mitch Dalton, who made $90,000 as recently as the 2022-2023 season.
This doesn’t feel like enough
Might develop this into a full article – but one way to look at this:
The top assistant at Clemson, a perennial top 4 football program, is Offensive coordinator Garrett Riley. He is making $1.75 million (on the athletics books).
I picked out Kentucky as the 39th best football team (because there are more football teams and it’s a more competitive market for coaches and IMO the whole coaching scheme in football is more developed than swimming, but it’s still a Power 5 program).
Kentucky head football coach makes $9 million.
The head coach of the 25th-ish best NCAA swimming programs are making around $120-$150k.
So we’re at an almost 1:1 ratio of assistant at the best program:head coach… Read more »
Name a better duo. I’ll wait.
Eddie and Kris
Dave & Dave. They’re coaching TWO teams and successfully cleaning up after the McKeever mess.
I’ve always thought you need to be little bit nuts to be a coach (non bball/fball). The pay sucks, the hours suck and your dealing with immature humans all day long.
Same goes for teachers
I do both. It can be a good duo if you are given decent classes by the principal. I’ve enjoyed it (more in the earlier years…), but since Covid it has been hard with the kids being so non-committed to the sport.
The only saving Grace right now is the fact that I’ve been having roughly 60% of my teaching salary placed into my 403b for last 20 years…. Retirement should be nice to us in 5 more years.
Yes, yes and yes.
How many college swimmers from Arizona State University have followed Bob Bowman to the University of Texas?
Despite the downvotes, it is a good question.
At this point just Hubi Kos, who won his initial World title after 7 months with Bowman. And one recruit for fall of 2025 switched his committment from ASU to Texas.
We won’t know about recruits until school actually starts, but I’m not aware of any changes, though there could be some not yet publicized.
I’m pretty sure Lucien Vergnes from the class of 2024 has switched his commitment and will be going to Texas in the fall. If I had to guess, more ASU recruits will too like Michael Hochwalt, the 200 stroke 400 IM kid.
If I had to guess, it would only be Kos and Vergnes. Hochwalt will swim at ASU.
Just curious, but how do you know regarding Hochwalt?
Are recruits as upset with Bowman as current Sun Devils are? just curious as an outsider looking in, as I’m genuinely surprised by how few recruits and swimmers have made the switch
In the grand scheme of things, $120k in Austin is not a good salary for someone who’s among the top in his field. Compensation for college swim coaches is not in a good place. Coaching takes an extreme level of commitment.
$120k is likely double what the college coaches I work with make combined. They’ve won leagues and coached All-American swimmers. They’re at the pool for 8+ hours a day M-S; recruiting, coaching, writing sets, working with athletes outside of the pool, advancing their knowledge of coaching, NCAA compliance…
I worked as a grad assistant $8k/year stipend.
My total comp as a young professional is well over $120k. It’s stressful, but I can take breaks and go to the gym and have a flexible schedule. Also, angry emails from customers are way better than angry emails from parents.
Fun fact: in 2007, WVU offered Sergio an $8k pay raise to bring his comp up to $40k/year and refused to hire… Read more »
We pay our first-year engineering hires a little more than that in Austin, base pay.
Just curious, did Eddie Reese get a conference championship bonus for big 12s when he was there?
He was due one. There’s flexibility for the AD to just say “nah not going to do that,” but he was due one.
The salary is absurd when it comes in comparison to the top 20/30/40 swimmers in the USA or the world for that matter. There is maybe only top 10 swimmers in the world who make 100k plus. Everyone else if they are lucky are making 30-50k annual salary. This is what is wrong with swimming in general in the USA and the world at large. The few like Ledecky are raking million and the rest are struggling because World Swimming and USA Swimming are run by folks who are out of touch with reality and live in the stone ages of Avery Brundage.
A university is paying this salary, not USA Swimming. UT is not responsible for how USA Swimming compensates national team members.
That being said, USA Swimming currently has a big sugar daddy in the NCAA system. Universities provide salaries for many of the national team coaches, world class facilities for those coaches to attract and train athletes, and tons of auxiliary support for national team coaches and athletes. What’s USA Swimming’s plan if universities decide they can no longer invest those type of resources in swimming?
I believe your numbers are a bit dated. As NIL for swimmers is not anywhere near football the number of swimmers getting something is fairly significant at my daughters school with a few swimmers getting large payouts. Also, students on a full ride at top schools get nearly $100k/year in education value.
The reported salaries for college coaches often are what the actual public institution pays, but most coaches also make income from side gigs that come with the job – opportunity to run camps, speaking, clinics, booster club, etc. That income can dwarf what the school paid “salary” is.
dwarf it?
What a great family! Nice to see NBAC crew back together