LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas athletic director Jeff Long, football coach Les Miles and basketball coach Bill Self announced Monday they had taken a 10% salary reduction for the next six months in an effort to save the athletic department nearly $500,000.
The move comes as the COVID-19 pandemic is putting pressure on collegiate athletic departments nationwide to cut costs to keep afloat. Many schools have asked their highest-paid employees to take salary cuts during the pandemic, and some have taken the more aggressive step of eliminating some sports entirely.
Long’s contract includes $1.5 million in annual base salary with $200,000 covered by the university. Miles is heading into the second year of a five-year contract that pays him $2.775 million a year. Self is in the midst of a contract extension that he signed in 2012 that goes through the 2021-22 season and pays him about $4 million annually.
Long said the school will “continue to evaluate what our future needs are to determine whether there will be additional salary cuts among Kansas Athletics staff for fiscal year 2021.”