Former Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski received almost $9 million in compensation from the ACC school in fiscal year 2023, despite having retired at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season. This haul is in addition to the over $100 million in Krzyzewski’s collegiate career earnings.
Krzyzewski, who currently maintains the role of school ambassador, was paid a base compensation of $2.37 million and bonus and incentive compensation of $5.92 million in FY23, according to Duke University’s most recently filed tax return released Wednesday. In addition, Krzyzewski received retirement and deferred pay of $608,831.
As a private university in North Carolina, Duke is not subject to the state’s open records laws. Therefore, the public’s lone window into the earnings of its (highest-paid) employees is typically relegated to its annual return which, as a federal 501(c)(3) charity, it is required to disclose upon request.
The latest IRS filing also disclosed that Krzyzewski used the university’s private air charter services, though to what extent is not clear. Since retiring as coach, Krzyzewski has been appointed a special adviser to basketball operations for the NBA. In addition, the Athletic reported that he was currently advising the Los Angeles Lakers on its head coaching search.
Krzyzewski’s total compensation of $8,990,914 was more than twice that of the second-highest-paid Duke employee, former head football coach David Cutcliffe, who earned $4.39 million. That amount was part of a severance payment the school agreed to give Cutcliffe after he departed the job in 2021 in what was publicly described as a mutually decided split.
Cutcliffe’s successor, Mike Elko, received $4.2 million in FY23 while Duke’s current men’s basketball coach, Jon Scheyer, received $1.7 million. In October 2023, Scheyer signed a six-year contract extension that likely increases that annual pay by multiples, though it will unlikely be known by just how many multiples until Duke releases its FY24 tax returns next May.
Nonetheless, it is safe to assume that fiscal year 2023 will stand as a financial outlier in which the head of the university earned more than its active head men’s basketball coach. Duke president Vince Price received $1.82 million.