As bowl season shifts into high gear, the student-athletes putting on the show get gift baskets. The gentlemen in charge of putting on the bowls get insane mega-salaries. (Many bowl games are run by tax-exempt, non-profit organizations, and therefore post their 990 tax return forms, which disclose executive compensation, online each year. The info below, then, is about the compensation these various execs received in 2011. Maybe they all took vows of poverty this year! Probably not, though.)
2.
Paul Hoolahan made $634,586 to run the Sugar Bowl.
In the year of the 2008 Sugar Bowl, Hoolahan received $645,386 despite the fact that the bowl lost money.
3.
Gary Stokan made $612,395 to run the Chick-fil-a Bowl.
4.
P. Scott McKibben made $562,149 to run the Rose Bowl.
McKibben resigned in late 2011 and was replaced from within.
5.
Rick Baker made $502,674 to run the Cotton Bowl.
It's neither here nor there, but listed expenditures for the 2011 Cotton Bowl included $10,000 for "beef bowls" and $5,000 for "milk products."
6.
Eric Poms made $492,535 to run the Orange Bowl.
8.
Richard Catlett made $389,392 to run the Gator Bowl.
9.
Gary Cavalli made $394,932 to run the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.
10.
Steve Hogan made $295,298 to run the Capital One and Russell Athletic Bowls.
11.
Bruce Binkowski made $283,095 to run the Poinsettia and Holiday Bowls.
Fun facts: Binkowski was the first employee of the San Diego Bowl Game Association in 1978 and has served as the public address announcer for the San Diego Padres and San Diego Chargers, per the San Diego Business Journal.
12.
Scott Ramsey made $275,431 to run the Music City Bowl.
13.
Jay Cicero made $238,390 to run the R+L Carriers Bowl.
