UW to pay Alvarez $118,500 to coach Rose Bowl

MADISON (AP) - Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez will earn $118,500 for returning to the sidelines to coach the Badgers in the Rose Bowl and a win against Stanford will mean a $50,000 bonus.

The executive committee of the university Board of Regents on Tuesday agreed to the terms following the surprise departure last week of head coach Bret Bielema to take the same job at Arkansas.

Alvarez was Wisconsin's coach from 1990 through 2005, a time when he won three Rose Bowl titles. The money for the coaching job will come out of Bielema's $1 million buyout to be paid by Arkansas.

• Timeline: Badgers in the Rose Bowl

Alvarez will receive $195,000 in December, which is 90 percent of Bielema's monthly coaching salary. He will also get $8,500, which is 10 percent of his athletic director salary. The total pay of $203,500 is a one-time $118,500 increase in his monthly salary.

"We weighed the factors involved, including the unique circumstances that developed less than a month before the game, the challenges of the job, the marketplace and his strength as a coach and concluded that this is a reasonable arrangement," said board President Brent Smith.

Interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward said the pay package was "fair and proportional."

"Coach Alvarez has a one-of-a-kind skill set that the university needs to be successful - both in the Rose Bowl and in attracting the best coaching candidates in the search for someone to lead the Badgers' football program going forward," Ward said.