A new expense looms for college athletic departments.

[muwarrior69]

Will this impact MU?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2016/05/17/department-of-labor-fair-labor-standards-act/84430000/

[StillAWarrior]

Will this impact MU?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2016/05/17/department-of-labor-fair-labor-standards-act/84430000/

I think that this is going to be a huge deal for athletics departments.  It likely won't have a noticeable effect in the revenue sports -- at least in the big schools -- but it will mean some significant changes for non-revenue sports.  Many (probably most) assistant coaches in those sports make less than the new minimum of $47,476 and will now be entitled to overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week -- and they do.  I see several potential responses:

• Raise salaries to the new minimum -- some will be able to afford this; others won't
• Cut and carefully control hours to ensure that they don't work more than 40 in a week -- that will be tough
• Reduce base compensation rates so that even with overtime the compensation will be be approximately the same as it was -- college coaches are not going to be happy to be earning $9/hr
• Cut staff and go with fewer assistant coaches on staff to control costs

As I said, this won't be an issue for MU BB, but the non-revenue sports are filled with assistants who are making $25-45k/ a year and it will affect them.

[Jay Bee]

As I said, this won't be an issue for MU BB, but the non-revenue sports are filled with assistants who are making $25-45k/ a year and it will affect them.

Heard wojo might cut 'em down to the $20-25k range because of the assistants not filling up the final scholarship slot.

You've got a limit on practice.. you've got games.. I'm not sure if these folks report total hours today.. wonder how they would... are we going to see some guy claim 60 hours / week of watching video?.. or does that become 'on his own time'...

Interesting...

...absolutely idiot 'standard'

[mu03eng]

It will impact the non-revenue sports, and the assistants in particular but it will be uniform in the non-revenue assistant coach industry so to speak so while the human impact will be less than desirable the university impact should be minimal.

The university will react by cutting non-salary benefits or lowering the base salary so they sort of come out equal or reclassify what working hours are, etc.

We'll see how it shakes out in the next 12 months, could be very interesting.

[StillAWarrior]

It will impact the non-revenue sports, and the assistants in particular but it will be uniform in the non-revenue assistant coach industry so to speak so while the human impact will be less than desirable the university impact should be minimal.

The university will react by cutting non-salary benefits or lowering the base salary so they sort of come out equal or reclassify what working hours are, etc.

We'll see how it shakes out in the next 12 months, could be very interesting.

I would tend to agree that the human impact will be much more significant than the university impact.  I suspect most universities will just take various steps to keep costs roughly constant.  They will either cut staff, wages or hours.  Cutting staff and/or hours will have a human impact obviously, but will also affect the program because they won't be able to do everything they were doing before whether it be practice, recruiting, etc.  Cutting wages will be primarily a human impact and will probably cause more young coaches to simply give up the profession (which is pretty common now as it is).  Some departments may decide to increase their budgets, but I think that will be the minority.

For a non-revenue sport with a HC (who, by the way, also might not meet the new minimum requirement in some smaller schools) and two full-time assistants something will have to give.  As I've said in other threads, most of my experience and familiarity with these things comes from volleyball.  The staffing mentioned above (HC + 2 Asst.) is very common there.  The assistants do all the normal stuff we would expect during season (practices, matches, recruiting, etc.).  In the off season, from January through July, they still do a lot of on-campus stuff but also spend entire weekends watching tournaments.  All of that is "hours worked" and will need to be paid on an hourly basis for anyone making less than $47k (which is the vast majority of assistants) and anything over 40/wk will be OT (and I suspect that 50-60/wk is the norm).  So, something is going to have to change.

I can't help but wonder how they will address it.  I suspect some schools might drop that second assistant.  Others might make one assistant a strict 40 hour a week job with no off-campus recruiting responsibilities (and a corresponding comp cut to reflect the lighter load) and the other will get an hourly wage rate that will result in total compensation being roughly equal.  For example, where previously there were two assistant coaches working 50-60 hours a week for $30k each, they will move them to $25k (i.e., $12.50/hr) and one will work overtime and end up somewhere in the $35k range.  Same $60k budget for assistants.  It will be interesting to see how they view that.  On the one hand, the assistant that is limited to 40/week might actually see an increase in the hourly rate, but will end up earning less because he or she is working fewer hours.  Some might appreciate that change.  The other may see it as a net gain -- making a bit more money for the same amount of work.  But the program would presumably lose out because there would be a reduction in the number of coaching/recruiting hours contributed by the staff.

I agree that it will be very interesting to see how it all works out.

[drewm88]

I wonder if some may look to go with graduate assistant(s) to replace an assistant coach role.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Smdh

[warriorchick]

I wonder if some may look to go with graduate assistant(s) to replace an assistant coach role.

You could also pile all the extra work on the guys that already make more than that, so that the nonexempt guys (and gals) don't go over 40.

Or in the slow parts of the year, scale back the schedule of the nonexempt folks so that they are only getting paid for a few hours a week then.

[StillAWarrior]

You could also pile all the extra work on the guys that already make more than that, so that the nonexempt guys (and gals) don't go over 40.

Or in the slow parts of the year, scale back the schedule of the nonexempt folks so that they are only getting paid for a few hours a week then.

I think in a lot of programs, there are no "guys that already make more than that."  But if there are...that is certainly an option.  And I think your second comment is probably something that a lot of programs will be looking into, but I'm not sure what time of year that is.  Obviously, will vary by sport.

[warriorchick]

I think in a lot of programs, there are no "guys that already make more than that."  But if there are...that is certainly an option.  And I think your second comment is probably something that a lot of programs will be looking into, but I'm not sure what time of year that is.  Obviously, will vary by sport.

It could be argued that a lot of the work that coaches do is technically discretionary.  So an assistant makes recruiting calls for 2 hours on a particular instead of 3.  How much actual coaching happens for the Golf team in January?