When Brenda Frese got her first coaching job at Kent State in 1993, the $500-per-month paycheck was so paltry, Frese got a side gig working at Little Caesars Pizza.
Two years later, when she was hired as an assistant at Iowa State and got bumped up to $50,000 per year, “I thought I was rich,” she said.
Frese laughs about it now because she understands how ludicrous it all sounds — especially considering her pay from Maryland, consistently one of the top women’s basketball programs in the country, is more than $1.4 million this season.
For 15 years, USA TODAY Sports has published a survey detailing compensation of men’s basketball coaches at 65 or more Division I schools.