Why Coastal Carolina had good reason to give football coach Jamey Chadwell a pay raise

To show they could compete with the big boys of college football, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers didn’t just need to win 11 of their 12 games last year and finish 14th in the nation.

They also decided they needed to drastically increase the pay of their football coach at a time when their athletics department had been hurting from painful cutbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, including layoffs and furloughs.

It was a sensitive move last December. How could they justify boosting the pay of coach Jamey Chadwell to an average of $1 million annually in guaranteed pay?

“Certainly, we understand what the perception was,” CCU athletics director Matt Hogue told USA TODAY Sports, referring to the timing of the pay raise. “But I think for our institution, it was a strategic move and over time could be a cost-effective move.”