Barry Alvarez will take home a nice paycheck for coaching Rose Bowl

 

 

Wisconsin Badgers athletic director Barry Alvarez may be only coaching one game, but he does figure to earn a hefty amount of money for his troubles. Alvarez is scheduled to pull in $118,500 for coaching in the Rose Bowl and could make an extra $50,000 should Wisconsin pick up the victory. Not bad for just a day’s work.

An executive committee agreed to the amount on Tuesday as the Badgers were left hanging when Bret Bielema abruptly departed for the Arkansas Razorbacks. The money for Alvarez’s one day coaching job will come out of Bielema’s $1 million buyout that is being paid by the Razorbacks.

Alvarez coached the Badgers from 1990-2005 and has three Rose Bowl wins on his resume. While the price may seem steep for coaching just one game, there are a few things to keep in mind. Alvarez’s familiarity with the team will make this coaching transition much smoother, as he attends every Badgers practice. Of course many will suggest why not use one of the coordinators on an interim basis. The issue there is the potential that they may feel like it is an audition for the Badgers job as well as other coaching vacancies around the nation, without having the proper preparation time to install their own systems.

The main goal of having Alvarez on the sidelines is to avoid any distractions that a coach walking away usually brings. The Badgers will have their hands full with the number six ranked Stanford Cardinal and need to keep their focus on the task at hand.

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