University of Iowa boosts bonus pay for coach Lisa Bluder

IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa Athletics Department has updated its contract with women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder to boost her bonus pay through 2025 and beyond.

Bluder — the university’s all-time winningest coach, with 21 years at the Hawkeye helm, 775 coaching wins, 18 postseason appearances (12 in a row) — had longevity bonuses baked into her previous contract through the end of this budget year June 30.

According to her contract amendment, signed April 8, Bluder’s longevity bonus will increase from $175,000 to $200,000 in the fiscal year that starts July 1. It will remain at that level through the end of 2023, and then will increase to $225,000 in the 2024 budget year and $250,000 in fiscal 2025.

“Annual longevity bonus payments in the amount of $250,000 will continue in alignment with contract extensions awarded beyond June 30, 2025,” according to contract documents obtained by The Gazette through a public records request.

Bluder’s contract includes automatic extensions for making the NCAA tournament.

And it increases her base pay depending on her team’s success — with a 3 percent bump if her team fails to qualify for the NCAA tournament and wins fewer than eight Big Ten games; 5 percent if it doesn’t make the postseason but wins eight or more games; 8 percent if it makes the tournament; 10 percent if it makes the Sweet 16; and 15 percent for making the Elite 8 or farther.

In that the Hawkeye women made the third round of the NCAA tournament this postseason, where they fell to the University of Connecticut, Bluder earned her 10 percent raise. Her contract also includes $115,000 in guaranteed income — for things like campus, shoe and apparel.

Bluder, as part of her department’s budget cuts, volunteered a one-time temporary 15-percent pay cut off what would have been her $705,813 salary for fiscal 2021.

That dropped her pay from $653,531 last year to $599,941.

Her one-time amendment notes Bluder’s salary will “return to the previous or previously agreed upon salary level” on July 1, 2021 — in less than two months.

Additionally, Bluder this budget year earned $160,000 in contracted bonus pay for her team’s strong win percentage, graduation rate and postseason appearances.

The Hawkeyes went 20-11 this past season, 11-8 in the Big Ten. They made the Big Ten tournament championship, where the Hawkeyes fell to the University of Maryland.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com