ARLINGTON, Texas - Florida's Billy Donovan has both the SEC trophies from this season. Kentucky's John Calipari has the bigger bonus check, at least for now.
If the Gators get past Connecticut in Saturday's semifinals and win their third national championship under Donovan on Monday night, the coach will have the biggest postseason payoff among his Final Four counterparts.
If Calipari makes it two titles in the past three seasons with the Wildcats, he will take home $700,000 through incentives that are common for college coaches but more lucrative at some schools.
Kentucky is clearly on the higher end in basketball. Calipari can make as much as $800,000 each year off the success of his team - he's leaving at least $100,000 on the table this year because Florida won the SEC regular-season and tournament championships.
But even the $700,000 he could get this year is more than the combined maximum for the other three coaches with a shot at the title.
Donovan would make $400,000 with a championship, followed by Connecticut's Kevin Ollie at $166,666 and Wisconsin's Bo Ryan at $120,000.
"A program's got to reach a stage of saying, "Whatever decision we make, we're making it within our means,'" said Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, who has one of the nation's highest-paid football coaches in Bob Stoops. "I know people focus on some of these salaries and I understand that, but there's a lot more investment being made into areas that directly, hopefully positively, impact the experience for student-athletes."
N. Texas changes since 1986
Quite a few things have changed in the North Texas region since the NCAA Final Four was last played there in 1986.
First off, this year's national semifinals and championship game will be played in the Dallas Cowboys' billion-dollar showplace stadium in Arlington.
Reunion Arena, the downtown Dallas arena that hosted the previous Final Four, was torn down in 2009. A year later, Texas Stadium with the hole in the roof where the Cowboys used to play, also was demolished.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in its Friday edition listed a tale of the tape comparing 1986 and 2014. Among the nuggets:
• Dallas-Fort Worth population has grown from 3.7 million to 6.8 million.
• Reunion Arena costs $27 million to build. That's not enough to even buy the huge screens now hanging over the center of the court.
• Attendance for the 1986 championship game was 16,493. More than 75,000 are expected Monday night.
• Average face value of tickets was $46 in 1986, and is $190 this year.
• The shot clock was then in its first year at 45 seconds. It's now 35 seconds.
North with Badgers
When Andy North's beloved Wisconsin Badgers got to their only other NCAA Final Four, they weren't there long enough for the two-time U.S. Open golf champion to share in the experience.
That was at Indianapolis in 2000, the same weekend North was playing in his first Champions Tour event.
"I did go the weekend before and I was there when they won and cut the nets down to go to the Final Four," North said Friday. "I had a deal with them that I'd be there Monday if they got to Monday."
But the Badgers lost to Michigan State in the national semifinals.
North, who lives in Madison and is a good friend of Badgers coach Bo Ryan, is with them for their first Final Four since then. They play Kentucky today, and with a win could potentially play Florida, where North went to college.
"All I care is that Wisconsin gets to Monday," he said. "I loved Florida, I loved my experience there. ... But I've lived my whole life basically in Madison. You get involved in the program and your head coach is one of your best buddies. It's hard not to get involved, and I jumped in with both feet."