Gophers coach P.J. Fleck’s contract approved after extended Regents discussion

P.J. Fleck’s amended contract, which will earn the Gophers football coach an additional $5.7 in retention bonuses should he stay with Minnesota through the 2029 season, was approved by the Board of Regents on Friday.

However, the contract didn’t pass by a 10-2 vote until after the regents had notable discussions on the value of big-money college football and a coach making $6 million per year while students and academic staff members struggle to make ends meet.

Fleck’s contract amendment came three weeks after he received strong interest from UCLA to become its new coach.

Regent Robyn Gulley called for Fleck’s amendment to be separated from the other consent items for discussion and a vote. After presentations by interim president Jeff Ettinger and athletic director Mark Coyle, Gulley credited the job Fleck has done and the importance of football to the university, but questioned the spending while others have to fight for money.

“Yesterday I was at the Capitol, where we heard from an undergraduate student who shared after a hard-fought student-led campaign, our undergraduate work-study students are still making less than the minimum wage in Minneapolis,” Gulley said. “… Until our graduate assistants have a contract, until our adjuncts are getting paid enough to pay the loans they took out to join us in those roles, until our students can pay for groceries and tuition, I cannot in good conscience vote for a $1 million raise for the person who is perhaps the best-paid person at the university.”

Coyle pointed out football is responsible for 80% of the athletic department’s funding and expects that percentage to continue climbing with conference realignment spearheaded by the Big Ten and Southeast Conference. He added that Fleck, through his success on the field, has brought unprecedented attention to the university through two on-campus appearances by ESPN’s “College GameDay” pregame show and one on Fox’s pregame show, “which serve as a multi-hour infomercial for the University of Minnesota.”

Regent Douglas Huebsch sympathized with Gulley but stressed how important he believes Fleck is to the university.

“Let’s say we lose P.J. Fleck; let’s go down that path.” Huebsch said. “It would do more damage than anything. … With the transfer portal and NIL (name, image and likeness opportunities), if we lose somebody that’s a great coach, we would be in huge trouble. It would be six more years of bailing out of that.”

Regent Mary Turner, who joined Gulley in voting no, acknowledged that asking for funds from the Legislature and “fighting for leaky roofs to get fixed” juxtaposes glaringly with a football coach getting a multi-million-dollar raise. “It’s a little bit of an ‘arggh’ situation,” she said, adding, “My heart tells me this is outrageous … but we have to also deal with reality.”

Regent Penny Wheeler echoed those thoughts. “The market is the market,” she said. “We have to basically decide if we want Division I athletics or not because all the other athletics are dependent upon [football].”

Regent Chair Janie Mayeron emphasized that Fleck’s raise “is not coming out of the university’s budget. It’s coming from the athletic department’s budget. They’re the ones who are going to have to make this work.”