Indiana head swimming coach Ray Looze and head diving coach Drew Johansen both received raises as part of a coaching contract spending spree by the Hoosiers administration this spring.
According to Indy Star, Looze’s new contract will include a base salary of $330,000 for the 2021-2022 season.
That puts Looze among the highest-paid coaches in the country. While not all coaches’ salaries are public record, recently-retired Jack Bauerle was previously the highest-known salary in collegiate swim coaching at $380,000.
Looze’s raise is his second in the last few seasons, and amounts to a $130,000 increase over his 2019 fiscal year base salary, where he earned $200,000.
That is in addition to money from camps and the affiliated swim club.
The last time Looze received a contract extension and a raise came in 2019, when he was connected to the open Stanford position, which ultimately went to Dan Schemmel. A year later, Looze said that he wasn’t pursuing the head coaching position at his alma mater USC, but when that position became open again this offseason, he was again rumored to be the administration’s first choice. USC ultimately gave Lea Maurer the job on a more-permanent basis, after serving as the interim head coach last season.
Looze wasn’t the only aquatics coach at Indiana to get an upgraded deal: diving coach Johansen will make $122,626 next season. That makes him one of the highest-paid diving coaches in the country as well.
Looze has been the head coach of the men’s team at Indiana for 20 years and the head coach of both programs for 17 years.
In the 2021-22 season, Looze led the Hoosiers to a men’s Big Ten Championship, the fifth title for the men and 10th between the two programs during Looze’s tenure. The result gave the IU men their fourth conference title in six seasons. As a result, Looze was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the eleventh time and the sixth time as the men’s coach.
That run included junior Brendan Burns being named Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and Big Ten Swmimer of the Championships after winning the NCAA title in the 200 fly.
The Indiana women finished 11th at the NCAA Championships, giving the program a 14th-straight top 15 finish at that meet. The women finished third at the Big Ten Championships, their 16th straight top-three finish at the event. Anna Peplowski led all freshmen in points scored and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year after earning silver in three events.
Johansen’s divers have been a big part of the Hoosiers’ success. Indiana had three women combined for 22 points on 1-meter, two divers combine for 33 points on 3-meter, and two divers earn 29 points on platform. That includes sophomore Tarrin Gilliland, who won the platform title at the NCAA Championships. Only Texas’ 90 points outscored the Hoosier women on the boards at the NCAA Championships.
The Indiana men had similar success, scoring 30 points on 1-meter, 17 points on 3-meter, and 17 points on platform. That included runner-up performances in both springboard events from Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver-medalist Andrew Capobianco.
#lovegoatcoachraylooze
#honorgoatcoachraylooze
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No one deserves it less than Ray
The GOAT Coach Ray Looze is grossly underpaid for all he does, but congrats anyway!
I would guess that If you compare the cost of living with Ray’s highest paid cohorts, Ray would have already shown to be doing really well comparatively before his raise.
IU must be finding a way of compensating some of their few more successful coaches since they have gotten rid of their bonus structure.
Adam Soldati at Purdue makes $150k according to their salary database
Just an fyi, I’m not sure the Bauerle figure is accurate. According to the open Georgia gov site, Jack pulled in over 500k last year from the university system and has pulled in around 480k for the 2-3 years before. This is not meant as a comment that he didn’t deserve that or that Looze doesn’t deserve this raise, just an observation on the actual salary figures.
Is that base salary or with bonuses? That may be why there is a discrepancy on what SwimSwam reported and your findings
With bonuses I suspect, though the reported amount was based with bonuses based on swimswam’s reporting about this from last year.
He’s still underpaid
Nice that the reward loyalty and longevity along with success. Now about all those breaststroke DQs (Cody, King, and now Lazor)…
Congrats coach! Swim coaches need to get more at all levels (not just college)
I agree. Swim programs bring a lot of revenue to universities. They totally deserve to be paid in the top 2 percent of university budgets.