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Wisconsin

Barry Alvarez's Rose Bowl pay: $118,500

AP
Barry Alvarez, now the Wisconsin athletics director, was 3-0 in Rose Bowls as the Badgers coach before he left the job after  the 2005 season.
  • Committee of regents also OKs bonus of $50,000 for a win against Stanford

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez will earn $118,500 for returning to the sideline to coach the Badgers in the Rose Bowl.

A win Jan. 1 against Stanford will mean a $50,000 bonus.

The executive committee of the university's Board of Regents on Tuesday agreed to the terms after the surprise departure last week of coach Bret Bielema to take the same job at Arkansas.

Alvarez was Wisconsin's coach from 1990 to 2005, a span during which he won the Rose Bowl three times. The money for the coaching job will come out of Bielema's $1 million buyout to be paid by Arkansas.

Alvarez will receive $195,000 in December, which is 90% of Bielema's monthly coaching salary. He also will get $8,500, which is 10% of his athletics director salary. The total pay of $203,500 is a one-time $118,500 increase in his monthly salary.

"We weighed the factors involved, including the unique circumstances that developed less than a month before the game, the challenges of the job, the marketplace and his strength as a coach and concluded that this is a reasonable arrangement," board President Brent Smith said.

Interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward said the pay package was fair and proportional.

"Coach Alvarez has a one-of-a-kind skill set that the university needs to be successful — both in the Rose Bowl and in attracting the best coaching candidates in the search for someone to lead the Badgers football program going forward," Ward said.

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