NCAA paid Mark Emmert $1.9M in 2014, tax return shows

NCAA President Mark Emmert was credited with nearly $1.9 million in total compensation during the 2014 calendar year, according to the association’s new federal tax return.

However, in terms of money actually paid in 2014, the association’s most highly compensated employee — by far — was now-former chief operating officer Jim Isch, who retired from that role late that year. He received more than $2.7 million in 2014, including more than $1.6 million in retirement and other deferred compensation.

At the time of his departure from the COO position, he had worked for the NCAA for 16 years. His base pay for 2014 was just under $800,000 and he had more than $275,000 in other reportable compensation, according to the new return, which the association provided Thursday in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports

Emmert’s base salary of $1,411,325 represented an increase of a little more than 3% over his base amount for 2013, or just more than $46,000.

NCAA spends $25 million on outside legal fees, double from previous year

In addition to his base pay, Emmert received a $10,000 bonus — the first time he has received a bonus during a tenure with the NCAA that began in October 2010, according to the association’s tax records. In January 2016, the NCAA’s board of governors gave Emmert a three-year contract extension that goes through 2020.

Chief legal officer Donald Remy also received a $10,000 bonus in 2014. No other employee whose pay is listed on the new return received more than $5,000 as a bonus, and six awards in that amount were reported.

Emmert also was credited with nearly $210,000 in other reportable compensation and $236,400 in retirement and other deferred compensation.

Emmert's base and total pay figures remain below those for the commissioners of the five power conferences. In 2014 the Big 12’s Bob Bowlsby had the lowest base salary among the commissioners at $1.8 million, and the Big Ten’s Jim Delany had the lowest overall total at nearly $2.3 million.

Remy was the association’s third-highest-paid employee in 2014, being credited with more than $825,000, including just more than $680,000 in base pay.

ACC reports $100 million increase in total revenue in 2015

Eight other NCAA executives were credited with total compensation of more than $410,000.

Overall, the association’s salary and benefits tab increased by 9.4% in 2014, compared with a 5.4% increase in 2014.

“This is due, in part, to health insurance costs, promotion and equity increases, and other compensation,” NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said in a statement. “Annual compensation increases average 3 percent for the national office staff.”

The NCAA continued increasing its distributions to members to more than $580 million during a fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2015, according to the new return — up from more than $560 million in fiscal 2014. (Under IRS rules, a non-profit must report its revenue and expense data based on its fiscal year; but it must report compensation data based on the calendar year completed during its fiscal year.)

Its spending on lobbying rose to $560,000 — up from just under $155,000 in fiscal 2014. And its spending on advertising and promotion rose to nearly $6.3 million in fiscal 2015, up from $1.2 million in fiscal 2014.

As reported last weekend by USA TODAY Sports, amid an array of high-profile court cases, the NCAA’s new return also reflects a significant increase in its outside legal costs. They were just more than $25.1 million during a fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2015 — up from just more than $13.8 million in fiscal 2014. The NCAA reported more than $8.7 million in total legal expenses for its 2012-13 fiscal year and nearly $9.5 million in 2011-12. The association reported around $4.1 million in legal expenses in both 2010-11 and 2009-10.

A new expense looms for college athletic departments

According to the new return, the NCAA paid nearly $8.2 million in fiscal 2015 to one outside law firm — Latham & Watkins, which represented the NCAA in entanglements related to the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State and in concussions-related litigation. The NCAA reported paying more than $5.8 million to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the firm representing the NCAA in cases relating to the association’s limits of what athletes can receive for playing college sports — cases also known as the grant-in-aid, or Alston and Jenkins/Kessler, cases.

Skadden, Arps also represented the NCAA and other league plaintiffs in the New Jersey gambling challenge.

“Because the cost of litigation has increased significantly nationwide across all sectors, particularly for class action lawsuits, the NCAA has anticipated these increases,” Osburn said in the statement. “Litigation during the … tax year included O’Bannon appellate proceedings, the filing of the grant-in-aid cases, and significant activity in the Arrington lawsuit (a concussions case). Several cases entered discovery, which has been the source of the most significant increases in pre-trial costs for defendants.”

Due to the complexity of its return, the NCAA — like many colleges, universities and other large non-profits — routinely takes filing extensions that result in a significant time lag between the period covered by its most recent return and the date it files.