Boston College pays big for its hockey success – USA TODAY
Hockey is serious business at Boston College, whose new federal income tax return shows exactly how serious.
Veteran men’s hockey coach Jerry York – who has won five NCAA titles and is college hockey’s all-time wins leader – was credited with nearly $1.25 million in total compensation during the 2014 calendar year, including the payout of a longstanding deferred compensation plan that likely was worth more than $600,000.
York’s total compensation made him BC’s second-highest-paid employee in 2014, behind football coach Steve Addazio, who was credited with a little more than $2.3 million.
Boston College said in a statement issued by spokesman Jack Dunn that York’s deferred payments go back more than a decade and that the lump-sum payout in 2014 included the principal and investment gains over the term of the deferral.
York’s base compensation in 2014 was a little more than $490,000 and he received $30,000 in bonus pay, according to the new return.
His annual salary, excluding the deferred compensation payout, “is competitive within the marketplace and reflects his stature as the best coach in college hockey and one of the winningest coaches in the history of NCAA sports,” BC’s statement said.
BC men’s basketball coach Jim Christian, hired by the school in April 2014, was credited with just over $1.1 million for the calendar year. Former men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue, fired by BC in March 2014, was credited with slightly more than $685,000 – a figure that includes money from a buyout. That made 2014 the fifth consecutive year in which BC reported paying both a current and former men’s basketball coach; Al Skinner received $500,000 a year in buyout money beginning in 2010 and going through 2013.
Athletics director Brad Bates was credited with nearly $650,000 for the 2014 calendar year.
In January 2015, BC was the only school among the Power Five conferences to vote against an NCAA rule change that allowed Division I schools to begin offering scholarships based on the full cost of attending school, rather than just the traditional tuition, fees, room, board and books. At the time, BC released a statement that said, in part, the school “is concerned with continuing to pass legislation that increases expenses when the vast majority of schools are already institutionally subsidized. The consequence of such legislation could ultimately hurt student-athletes if/when programs are cut. This legislation further segregates student-athletes from the general student population by increasing aid without need-based consideration. Legislation already exists for student-athletes in need through Pell grants and the student-assistance fund.”
Private schools are not required to make public their employment contracts. However, they commonly pay coaches and athletics directors amounts that end up requiring them to disclose those figures on IRS documents they must file and make available as a condition of their non-profit status.
York is among the rare examples of a coach in a sport other than football, men’s basketball or women’s basketball to be included in the reporting of a school in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision.
York has a 1,012-599-110 career record in 44 seasons, including 545-264-76 in 22 seasons at BC.
He led Bowling Green to the NCAA championship in 1984 and brought titles to BC in 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2012.