California proposes amendment that could potentially limit coaching salaries to $200,000

An amendment proposed by California state legislators would reduce non-faculty staff salaries to $200,000 a year which, if passed, would include college football head coaches. Coaches, who obviously don’t work for the actual state universities in faculty roles, would be included in the salary reduction if the amendment is passed, per the Daily Bruin:

The proposed amendment limits non-faculty salaries to $200,000 per year, which would affect coaches that, on some campuses, make millions of dollars, and administrators that make hundreds of thousands of dollars. The proposal also requires the UC Board of Regents to approve higher salaries in public hearings.

Under the amendment, regents’ terms would be reduced from 12 years to four years, and the UC president would lose their voting power on the Board of Regents. The UC Office of the President would also be required to report expenditure information to the regents, governor and Legislature.

The amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both the Assembly and the state Senate, followed by a majority vote by the public in a ballot measure in order to pass.

According to the newspaper, the reasoning for the amendment comes after The University of California, the governing body of state colleges in California, had a $175 million surplus that was found by an audit, that wasn’t previously disclosed.

So how does this affect say, Chip Kelly, who signed a five-year, $23-million salary with UCLA in January? Or how about Cal’s Justin Wilcox, who is set make $9.58 million over five seasons? That’ll become more clear if the amendment is passed, but as FootballScoop points out, it’s probably going to mean athletic directors are going to have to get a bit more creative:

We may see the “base salary” of coaches capped at $200,000, but there’s no limit on the creativity athletic directors and boosters could ultimately use to make up the difference.

A far less likely (but infinitely more fun) possibility is to imagine Kelly or Wilcox teaching a single Football 101 class so they could be considered “faculty.”

For now, we’ll just have to wait and see if the amendment does actually pass before we jump to any conclusions. Your salaries are still safe at the moment, California head coaches.