Boise, ID – Boise State University’s football coach will get two million dollars a year starting next fall. That puts him in a club with about 30 other members. Wednesday Idaho’s State Board of Education approved a raise to boost Coach Chris Petersen’s salary. Milford Terrell told his fellow board members the raise wouldn’t cost the university or the state anything.
Milford Terrell “No state funds are used. And these amounts are paid only from programs, revenue, media, public appearance fees, donations and other non-state funds.”
This vote covers only Petersen’s base salary. The Board of Education will vote on the rest of the five year contract next month. The raise puts Petersen above the one and a half million dollar average salary for college football coaches. But it’s short of the top earners like Mack Brown of Texas who tops the field at more than five million dollars a year. Petersen is already by far the highest paid public employee in Idaho. His closest rival is his boss university president Bob Kustra who earns 336 thousand dollars a year.