New contract makes Scott Dolson IU's first $1 million AD, but still near bottom of Big Ten

BLOOMINGTON – In May, IU Athletic Director Scott Dolson received a three-year contract nearly doubling his guaranteed pay, even before accounting for deferred and bonus compensation. While Dolson’s overall compensation package still ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten, it does make him the university’s first-ever million-dollar AD.

Documents obtained via records request by the USA TODAY Network show Dolson signed his new deal — his first multi-year agreement with his alma mater since assuming his position in 2020 — effective May 31.

It includes a base salary substantially in excess of his old number, up to $950,000 from $519,380 in the previous fiscal year. That’s an increase in base salary of more than 80%, a remarkable jump, albeit one more or less in line with the market for Big Ten athletic directors.

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Dolson is scheduled to get another $125,000 in 2025 under a five-year deferred-compensation plan included in his original employment letter from March 2020 that has been carried forward in the new contract. Dolson already has been credited with a total of $375,000 over the first four years of the plan, which would pay out if Dolson remains IU’s AD through July 2025 or is fired without cause before then.

In addition, Dolson will be owed $100,000 per year over a five-year period for what the contract terms “unused sick leave days accrued between (Dolson’s) first day of employment through May 31, 2024.”

That final piece of compensation will be paid in full in the event Dolson is terminated before the expiration of the contract. Any further salary increases will be handed out at the sole discretion of the university president.

His contract represents a substantial jump in pay for Dolson, who has worked in departmental administration since being brought over by Fred Glass, his former boss, from IU’s Varsity Club to serve as Glass’ chief deputy. Dolson occupied that position for 11 years, before replacing Glass in 2020.

Since his elevation, he’s navigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, hired new football and men’s basketball coaches, and overseen substantial fundraising for Indiana’s NIL efforts.

Dolson’s contract also contains a series of performance-related incentives, including:

∎ An additional $47,500 for each Big Ten championship his programs win, up to $190,000 per year.

∎ An additional $95,000 per year if the department’s cumulative Academic Progress Rate (APR) is at or above 950 (out of 1000). For reference, IU’s combined APR score for the 2022-23 academic year — the most recent full year in the metric’s calculations — was 991.

∎ An additional $100,000 per year for each national championship his programs win.

If Dolson wishes to terminate the contract before its expiration, he would owe IU liquidated damages — effectively a contract buyout — in that event.

Leaving the university for an athletic director position out of conference would require him to pay said damages in the form of 20% of a year’s salary, or $190,000. If Dolson left for the same position at another Big Ten school (or any other conference the university is a member of in that timeframe), that number would rise to 30%, or $285,000.

That provision ceases to apply to Dolson in the event he terminates his contract within 12 months of its predetermined expiration.

Were Indiana to fire Dolson without cause, it would owe him the remainder of his base salary, paid in monthly installments across the life of the contract. The university would also owe Dolson the amassed account balance of his deferred compensation.

Dolson’s contract does include a duty on his part to mitigate those obligations by making “reasonable and diligent efforts” to find comparable employment elsewhere, with his earnings from any similar position in that timeframe reducing the university’s buyout obligation by said amount.

Between base pay and guaranteed additional compensation (deferred compensation and the sick leave provision), Dolson’s contract will make him the first million-dollar athletic director in IU’s history. He also stands to make more money than his president, Pam Whitten, albeit not substantially more.

Yet while it represents a substantial pre-bonus raise on his previous compensation, Dolson’s deal still ranks him below most of his contemporaries in the Big Ten.

According to data obtained by the USA Today Network, Dolson makes more than Michigan State’s Alan Haller and Iowa’s Beth Goetz, two Big Ten ADs who have been in their jobs for a shorter period of time.

But Dolson’s compensation package pales in comparison to some of the biggest earners in the conference.

Ohio State’s Ross Bjork makes $2 million per year, having recently replaced longtime Buckeyes AD Gene Smith, while former IU football player and administrator Pat Kraft’s latest deal at Penn State — which was just extended through 2032 — pays an average of $2.26 million annually. The exact terms of Kraft’s deal have not been made publicly available.

Among contemporaries in the league financially, Dolson’s guaranteed compensation falls in a similar range to that of Maryland’s Damon Evans ($1.28 million) and Purdue’s Mike Bobinski, who earns $975,000 in base pay but breaks past seven figures annually when deferred compensation is included. Bobinski also receives $250,000 retention bonuses if he is still employed with the university in July 2026 and 2028. Bobinski’s contract with Purdue runs through June 30, 2028.

Dolson’s contract is a departure in procedure for Indiana University, which kept both Dolson and his predecessor, Fred Glass, on at-will employment agreements that provided one year of base salary as severance if they were fired without cause.

This deal hands Dolson a substantial financial boost but, perhaps more meaningfully for him, longer-term job security. With the winds of change buffeting athletic departments across the country in the era of NIL and, potentially very soon, revenue sharing, that certainty will give Dolson some peace of mind as he steers his department the unpredictable years ahead.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU AD Scott Dolson's new contract pays him more than school president