Bob Bowman Earns At Least $140,000 in Bonuses from SEC, NCAA Championship Runs

Another NCAA Championship meet, but the same two coaches: Bob Bowman and Todd DeSorbo are the head coaches of this year’s title winning national championship teams, though that doesn’t mean it was exactly the same outcome.

While the Virginia women (DeSorbo) won their 5th straight national title, Bowman this year led the Texas men to the top in his first season leading the program after leading Arizona State there last year.

• See 2024 bonuses.

Keep in mind that the payouts below are those directly listed in their coaching contracts, which are public record, and don’t include ad hoc bonuses, bonuses written into sponsorship agreements, camp money, or additional money from boosters or donors.

Bob Bowman‘s Massive 2025 Bonus

Bowman’s base salary for his first season at Texas was $400,000; that will escalate by $10,000 per season through the 2029-2030 academic year.

Based on the December 2023 policy for Exceptional Performance incentives for Texas coaches (which we presume, but don’t know for sure, to be still in effect), Bowman earned a bonus equivalent to 25% of his base salary in exchange for winning the men’s conference championship. That means a cool $100,000 for winning the conference crown.

That isn’t all, though.

He also receives 5% of his base salary ($20,000) for winning the men’s SEC title and 5% of his base salary ($20,000) for being named the CSCAA Men’s Coach of the Year. He could also receive an additional 2% of his base salary ($8,000) if he is named the SEC Men’s Swimming & Diving Coach of the Year after the team won its first SEC title in its first year in the conference to maximize the allowed 37% bonus for the men’s team.

In total, that means he will take home between $140,000 and $148,000 in bonuses this year. Adding to his $400,000 base salary would make his total pay from his coaching contract $540,000 per year.

By comparison, he received $80,000 in known bonuses (NCAA Championship, Pac-12 Championship, Coach of the Year in both) and $219,000 base salary in his last season at Arizona State.

Bowman’s contract implies that he is eligible for up to 67% of his base salary in bonuses from the combined efforts of the men’s and women’s teams, though it’s not entirely explicit as to whether he receives the same bonus structure for the women’s team because he is the “men’s head coach” and “director of swimming,” but Carol Capitani is the “women’s head coach.”

Assistant coaches may be eligible for similar percentage incentives as a proportion of their salary, and diving coach Matt Scoggins can make up to 37% in incentives from the men’s and women’s programs combined.

Todd DeSorbo

While DeSorbo was rumored to be a candidate for a number of high profile jobs in the last few years, he has remarkably stayed put in Charlottesville on the same contract he signed in 2021 (as far as we know).

That contract carried a $140,000 base salary and a bonus of 1.5 months of base salary for winning the NCAA Championship, meaning $17,500.

He also received a bonus for the ACC Championship for women ($5,000), being named the ACC Coach of the Year ($5,000), and being named the National Coach of the Year ($10,000). He has won conference titles, conference coach of the year, and national coach of the year awards for each of the last five seasons.

His last contract extension runs through the 2026-2027 season, and on the open market, as the head coach of a combined men’s and women’s team with one of those teams winning five consecutive national titles, his base salary is well below that of other top 5 coaches (Matt Kredich at Tennessee receives a base of $270,000, for example).

That doesn’t rule out DeSorbo being compensated in other ways that wouldn’t show up in his contract or other public records, however, like from booster funds.