Louisville volleyball investment vs NCAA Tournament Final Four teams
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Dan Meske named Louisville volleyball head coach
Dan Meske was named the new Louisville volleyball head coach after former head coach Dani Busboom Kelly left for Nebraska.
Sam Upshaw Jr.
- Louisville spent $2.95 million on volleyball during the 2024 fiscal year, according to its NCAA financial report. That is equal to 1.79% of U of L’s overall athletics budget ($165.17 million).
- Percentage-wise, Louisville ranks third of the 2024 Final Four teams, behind Nebraska’s 2.77% ($5.91 million) and Pitt’s 2.41% ($3.34 million, according to its 2024 EADA report).
A new era of Louisville volleyball has begun.
After eight seasons, two NCAA runner-up finishes, three national semifinals appearances and four ACC championships, Dani Busboom Kelly left Louisville for Nebraska, her alma mater. Dan Meske, Busboom Kelly’s associate head coach from the start, was promoted to replace her. Together, they vaulted U of L into the upper echelon of college volleyball.
As the Cards look to capitalize off what they built and secure a national championship, investment will be crucial.
USA TODAY and The Courier Journal compiled head coach contract information for the following NCAA volleyball powers: Louisville, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Pitt, Purdue, Texas and Wisconsin. Busboom Kelly had a base salary of $400,000 at U of L, which ranked seventh among coaches at those eight schools (ahead of Oregon’s Matt Ulmer with $275,000).
Because Penn State is classified as a “state-related university,” it isn’t required to disclose salary information aside from an annual disclosure of top salaries. Volleyball coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley was not included on the most recent list released in May 2024. Of the three Final Four head coaches whose salaries are available, Busboom Kelly ranked third. Nebraska’s John Cook had a base salary of $825,000 in 2024. Pitt’s Dan Fisher had a base salary of $521,833 in 2023. (Pitt announced Fisher signed a contract extension Jan. 8.)
Meske is set to make $300,000 a year for five years as the Cards head coach, according to his term sheet provided by the University of Louisville Athletic Association. He will also receive a monthly car stipend of $500. His performance bonuses, as follows, are cumulative:
- ACC regular-season conference champion: $10,000
- ACC Coach of the Year: $10,000
- NCAA Sweet 16 appearance: $20,000
- NCAA Elite Eight appearance: $10,000
- NCAA Final Four appearance: $25,000
- NCAA national champion: $25,000
- National Coach of the Year: $25,000
Busboom Kelly’s base salary at Nebraska starts at $700,000 (a 75% raise) and will climb to $825,000 in 2030. She also received a $25,000 relocation stipend and will be allowed up to 10 hours of private flight time. Any time Nebraska advances to a Final Four under her guidance, the university will give her a $50,000 bonus and extend her contract by another year. Her bonus for winning an NCAA title with the Cornhuskers is $100,000 — double what it was at Louisville.
U of L spent $2.95 million on volleyball during the 2024 fiscal year, according to its NCAA financial report. That is equal to 1.79% of Louisville’s overall athletics budget ($165.17 million). Percentage-wise, Louisville ranks third of the 2024 Final Four teams, behind Nebraska’s 2.77% ($5.91 million) and Pitt’s 2.41% ($3.34 million, according to its 2024 EADA report). Penn State spent more on its volleyball program than Pitt and Louisville ($3.56 million) but a smaller percentage of its overall athletics budget (1.67%).
As the revenue-sharing era of college athletics looms, administrators are trying to decide how they’ll distribute at least $20.5 million to their athletes and operate with sport-specific roster caps instead of scholarship limits. The answers to these questions will undoubtedly impact spending across athletics departments — Louisville included.
“Over the next, probably six to 18 months,” U of L athletics director Josh Heird told reporters in December, “it’ll be, in my mind, the most transformative time in the college athletics industry.”
Heird declined to get into specifics about how Louisville is preparing to comply with the House settlement but stressed the importance of staying competitive in all sports — naming men’s basketball, volleyball and baseball specifically.
“We got hit with a $20 million expense when most athletic departments aren’t operating in the black,” Heird said. “So, how do we manage that? How do we work together to ensure that we’re competing at the level that we expect and our fans expect?”
- John Cook (Nebraska): $825,000
- Kelly Sheffield (Wisconsin): $600,000
- Dan Fisher (Pitt): $521,833*
- Jerritt Elliott (Texas): $500,000
- Keegan Cook (Minnesota): $425,000
- Dave Shondell (Purdue): $425,000
- Dani Busboom Kelly (Louisville): $400,000
- Matt Ulmer (Oregon): $275,000**
*This is Fisher’s reported base salary in 2023. He signed a contract extension with Pitt in January.
**Ulmer left Oregon to become the head coach of Kansas volleyball in January.
Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.
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