Thanks to a huge NCAA profit from the past fiscal year, Mark Emmert, the organization's president, received a nice pay raise.
The NCAA profited $32 million in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, according to a copy of their latest federal tax return obtained by the Associated Press. Emmert received a five percent increase on his base salary, from $1.2 million to $1.7 million.
Also surpassing a million dollars in his annual salary was Jim Isch, chief operating officer, at $1.013 million. Donald Remy, chief legal counsel and executive vice president, was the organization's third-highest-paid official, making. $619,663.
The NCAA generated $874 million in revenue, an increase of four percent from the 2011-2012 fiscal year, and spent $842 million, a 6.4 percent increase. The NCAA distributed $546 million to its member schools, a new record.
The NCAA's total compensation and benefits reached $54.3 million in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, USA Today reported, which was a nine percent increase from the previous year.
"This is due in large part to filling some vacant positions and creating a few additional new positions," Stacey Osburn, an NCAA spokeswoman, said in the statement to the newspaper. "Higher health insurance costs also drove compensation increases."
How the NCAA spends it money has been the subject of a lawsuit awaiting a judge's ruling. Ed O'Bannon, a former basketball player at UCLA, sued the NCAA for profiting off its student-athletes without compensating them.
U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken granted a motion to dismiss the jury after the plaintiffs asked for an injunction and declined to seek individual damages. The NCAA's Executive Committee's Administrative Committee makes decisions regarding its officials' salaries, CBS Sports reported.
"To assist its efforts, the Administrative Committee utilizes an independent third party to undertake market surveys of comparable positions," Osburn said. "The committee sets NCAA executive salaries at levels similar to other comparable executive positions."
