Apr 6, 2013 3 min read

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Barry Alvarez has a new contract that will keep him as the athletic director of the University of Wisconsin for the next five years.

Alvarez, a Langeloth native, had an additional year tacked onto his existing deal and he was given a $25,000 raise, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Saturday. That puts his compensation for 2013-14 at $1.05 million and keeps him among the highest-paid athletic directors in the country.

UW Athletics will pay $500,000 of that salary. The rest is from gift funds at the UW Foundation.

Alvarez, who turned 66 in December, coached the Badgers football team from 1990 to 2005, a span during which he won three Rose Bowl titles. He’ll be entering his 10th year as athletic director, the first two in the dual role of coach and AD.

“I enjoy what I do,” Alvarez said. “I like the people I work with. I like the job.”

Alvarez is one of three athletic directors in the Big Ten known to have seven-figure compensation packages in 2012-13. Shawn Eichorst, Alvarez’s deputy athletic director from 2009 to 2011, made $1.123 million at Nebraska and Gene Smith at Ohio State made just under $1.1 million.

UW Athletics sponsors 11 sports for men and 12 for women. It recently approved $133 million in spending authority for 2013-14.

Darrell Bazzell, the UW vice chancellor for finance and administration, praised Alvarez as someone who takes his job seriously and hires quality people.

“I would refer to it as a top-notch department,” Bazzell said. “I think they do an excellent job.”

Before Alvarez’s arrival at Wisconsin in 1990, the Badgers had had just six winning seasons from 1964-89 and went 19 years without another bowl appearance after losing to USC in the 1963 Rose Bowl. They were such a sorry bunch that the Wisconsin band’s postgame show was the main attraction at Camp Randall, with students rarely bothering to show up until before halftime.

Alvarez came with stingy defense, a power running game and a massive offense line that would soon become the standard in both college and the pros. The Badgers had a Big Ten-record 10 straight seasons with a 1,000-yard rusher under Alvarez, and Ron Dayne became the school’s second Heisman Trophy winner in 1999.

Four years after taking over, Alvarez led the Badgers to a 10-1-1 record, a No. 4 ranking and the 1994 Rose Bowl. Wisconsin has had only two losing seasons since then.

Alvarez’s 118-73-4 record in 16 seasons includes a 3-0 mark in the Rose Bowl — Wisconsin’s only victories in eight trips to Pasadena.

While his legacy as football coach is secure, he said he proud of his accomplishments as athletic director as well. He noted that Wisconsin’s football team has played in three straight BCS games and that the men’s basketball team has made the NCAA tournament every year since 1999.

“Our consistency is pretty good,” he said. “I don’t know if most people recognize it.”

He said he’ll continue to push that agenda in the coming years and that he doesn’t have any immediate plans to step down.

“I haven’t thought about retirement,” he said. “I’ll keep going as long as I keep enjoying it and as long as they want me here.”

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Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj