Vanderbilt’s A.D. Is Highest Paid In The Nation

Although not known for having powerhouse football or basketball programs, Vanderbilt’s David Williams is the highest-paid athletic director in the nation, according to a report from USA Today released Wednesday.

Williams, though, is more than an athletic director and is compensated for his other positions as well. His other positions at the private university include: vice chancellor for university affairs and athletics; general counsel and university secretary for Vanderbilt and its medical center; fully tenured professor of law.

Williams was paid $2.56 million from Vanderbilt in 2009, which is more than a $1 million more than the next athletic director on the list, Florida’s Jeremy Foley ($1.545 million).

Foley and Williams are two of six athletic directors who earned more than $1 million dollars. The other four in that group are: Louisville’s Tom Jurich ($1.427 million), Texas’ DeLoss Dodds ($1.095 million), Ohio State’s Gene Smith ($1.074 million) and Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez ($1.040 million).

In an interview with USA Today, Williams calculated that 60 percent of his base salary is for overseeing athletics and 40 percent of his bonus money comes from his work with sports. According to the report, that would yield a salary of $537,200 for being Vanderbilt’s athletic director. USA Today reports the average is about $450,000 at top-tier NCAA schools.

Williams says the job is a lot more than just dealing with athletics as marketing, NCAA compliance and other issues are involved as well.

“The skill set is such that you got to be part lawyer, part business person, and now there’s a greater need in many schools from the communications point of view,” Williams told the newspaper. “So if someone says what should I go learn to train to be this, I’d say go spend a year in law school, a year in business school and a year over in the college of education, and then take some communication stuff. And then get yourself a big old box of aspirin.”

Not all schools made information available for the USA Today report.