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Lisa Bluder to receive $310,000 in postseason bonuses after 2023 Final Four run

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Iowa head women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder has earned $310,000 in postseason bonuses following the Hawkeyes’ 2023 Final Four run, according to her contract obtained by The Gazette via a public records request.


Her base salary also will increase from $838,506 to $964,282 — a bump of 15 percent or $125,776 — effective July 1, because the team went to the Elite Eight or farther.


Depending on the team’s six-year graduation rate and academic progress rate, Bluder could receive up to $75,000 in additional incentives.


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Iowa’s March Madness appearance adds another year to Bluder’s contract, which will now end in 2028.


After factoring in her new base salary, 2023 postseason bonuses, a longevity bonus and other guaranteed income, Bluder’s total income will be about $1.6 million.


Bluder’s income — about $1.3 million before the bonuses — puts her in the top tier of college coaches. A USA Today database last updated in 2022 ranked Bluder as the ninth-highest paid coach in the country at the time although she and other coaches have received raises since.


Some of the coaches Bluder competed against in late rounds of March Madness have earned considerably more, though.


LSU’s Kim Mulkey will earn about $2.5 million before a slew of postseason bonuses, according to her contract obtained by the Baton Rouge Advocate.


South Carolina’s Dawn Staley has a base salary of $3 million before postseason incentives, per The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C. Louisville’s Jeff Walz’s base salary before incentives is $1.7 million, per the Louisville Courier-Journal.


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“I haven’t had any conversations,” Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said last week, about revisiting Bluder’s contract since the Final Four run.


“Lisa’s contract was set up between the two of us in a really thoughtful way — that with more success comes a wonderful set of bonuses that she’s earned,” Barta told The Gazette. “So much of what we’ve put in her contract will come automatically as a result of the success.”

 
She's earned it. Franwich has earned another samwich at Applebees.
 
I'm actually kind of surprised a women's basketball coach earns that much.
She was underpaid for years. She generates a lot of money for the athletic department and the university, so she's earned everything she gets.
 
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