Compensation for the highest positions at the Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar bowls has more than doubled since the bowls became part of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998-99, with average annual executive compensation now exceeding $500,000.

Records compiled by The Arizona Republic show that average executive pay at BCS bowls is in the top 2 percent of compensation for the more than 6,500 non-profits that have similar budgets. They are in the top 9 percent when compared to non-profits with budgets up to twice their size.

Average pay for BCS top executives mirrors or exceeds that of university presidents, and bowl execs earn more than counterparts at publicly held companies with similar or more revenue.

Sugar Bowl Chief Executive Paul Hoolahan, the longest-serving BCS executive, has seen his income increase by at least 270 percent, to $593,718, since the BCS began 13 years ago.

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne - who has been president or chairman of 10 non-profits - is critical of the pay for BCS bowl executives, saying it is out of line for non-profit organizations.

Critics say excessive pay could hurt the bowls' tax-exempt status because non-profits are prohibited by law from enriching individuals. Excessive salaries can be considered an improper enrichment. Playoff PAC, a group hoping to dissolve the BCS, has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service asking it to examine bowl compensation.

"It struck me as ridiculous the amount of money he's paid," Dardenne said of the Sugar Bowl CEO's salary. "It's reflective of the fact that intercollegiate athletics are big business. We are seeing skyrocketing salaries for coaches and athletic directors. It's consistent in what you see in those areas, but in my estimate it's way too much."

Sugar Bowl spokesman John Sudsbury said a bowl-compensation committee works with consultants to set salaries. Bowls also say their compensation is market-driven, with top BCS executives needing certain skills critical to stage major sporting events, manage staffs and host related events year-round.

Executives' pay increases

The BCS is a partnership among 11 college-football conferences, the University of Notre Dame and four major bowls - Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar. The system selects teams to play in each of the four major bowls plus a fifth, rotating game that determines a national champion.

The bowls generate their income from the games, sponsorships and TV contracts. Last year, the combined BCS payout was nearly $182 million, with roughly 80 percent of the money going to the six conferences that created the BCS.

Revenue jumps during years that the bowls host a second, championship game, which began in 2007. Around that time, the BCS bowls saw a spike in executive compensation during or after years they hosted two games.

But while the bowls' revenue typically returns to lower, normal levels a year later, executive pay is not adjusted accordingly. In some instances, it has continued to increase, records show.

At the Fiesta Bowl, former Chief Executive John Junker's pay jumped by $62,515 to $477,550 in the fiscal year of the bowl's 2007 double hosting. The next three fiscal years, Junker's pay kept rising - to $561,210, $592,418 and then $673,888.

During the double-hosting year, Fiesta revenue more than doubled to $49.9 million. But it fell to $27 million and $28 million the following two years.

Junker declined comment. He was fired in March after an internal investigation alleged he misspent bowl funds and was part of an illegal scheme in which employees were reimbursed for making political-campaign contributions.

Junker made $200,000 annually when the BCS began in 1998-99. By the time of his exit, his total compensation had increased nearly 237 percent.

Pay for Junker's replacement, former University of Arizona President Robert Shelton, could approach his predecessor's. Shelton receives a $455,000 salary, plus about $30,000 for his retirement account. He has the potential to earn another $135,000 in incentives, bringing his total potential compensation to $620,000. Like Junker, Shelton also will manage the Insight Bowl, which the Fiesta Bowl acquired in 1997. But the Fiesta Bowl board eliminated many past perks such as CEO golf-club memberships.

"Dr. Shelton's compensation was the result of a great amount of research and extensive consultations with experts," said Fiesta spokesman Andy Bagnato. "We think it is a very fair package."

Salary records show:

- Chief executive Hoolahan's pay at New Orleans' Sugar Bowl rose nearly $140,000 to a record $645,386 in fiscal 2008-09, after the bowl hosted the second, championship game. In fiscal 2009-10, his pay dropped to $593,718, which is 270 percent more than his $160,500 salary when the BCS began.

Compensation for the Sugar Bowl's assistant executive director/chief operating officer hit a high of $398,023 in 2008-09, dropping to $352,360 the next year. Though it declined, it was 339 percent more than when the BCS began.

- At Miami's Orange Bowl, compensation for the top job increased 117 percent from $233,400 to $506,599.

Eric Poms, promoted to CEO from COO in 2006, saw his salary rise nearly $150,000 to just more than $500,000 in fiscal 2009-10, the year after a double hosting. The Orange Bowl raised the salaries of three other executives above $250,000 in 2009-10.

- At the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., CEO compensation was much lower than other BCS bowls until P. Scott McKibben was hired in late 2009. The former newspaper executive said his annual base pay was $425,000, and he had the potential to earn a $200,000 bonus. He said he received a bonus this year, but he declined to disclose the amount.

McKibben's time at the bowl, however, will be short: The bowl announced this month he is resigning effective Nov. 8. McKibben told The Republic he had personal and philosophical differences with the bowl.

McKibben replaced John M. Dorger, who was making $282,195 in fiscal 2009-10. When the BCS started, the top executive at the Rose Bowl earned $131,854. The pay for that job will have increased 374 percent if McKibben received his full bonus.

The story isn't much different at non-BCS bowls, according to their 2009-10 IRS filings. Gary Cavalli, executive director of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, earns $361,950. Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker: $470,147. Outback Bowl Chief Executive Jim McVay: $693,212.

Outpacing peers

Average BCS executive pay exceeds that of other non-profits with similar budgets, according to the most recent annual study by GuideStar USA Inc., an online information service with a database of 6.1 million tax returns filed by 1.8 million non-profits.

Non-profits that run the BCS bowls had annual budgets or expenses ranging from $12.3 million to $27.7 million in fiscal 2009-10, according to figures confirmed by the bowls.

Compensation that fiscal year for top executives at BCS bowls ranged from $282,195 to $673,888, averaging $514,100.

That compensation outpaced non-profit groups of comparable size.

GuideStar examined salary records for 6,576 chief executives of non-profits with budgets of $10 million to $25 million. Their pay averaged $225,239. The bowl executives' compensation was in the 98th percentile of this group.

The bowl salaries were high even when compared with larger non-profit groups, those with revenue of $25 million to $50 million. The 2,548 top officers in that group had an average pay of $309,466, according to GuideStar. The bowl executives' compensation was in the 91st percentile of this group.

Chuck McLean, GuideStar's vice president for research, said that by any objective standard the pay for BCS executives was high, on par with doctors at health-care institutions or university presidents.

"That's pretty rarefied air," McLean said.

Compensation for top BCS executives roughly mirrors or exceeds the median pay for presidents at 185 large public universities, which The Chronicle of Higher Education this year calculated at $444,487.

Sandra Miniutti, chief financial officer for Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based organization that rates charities, said records she compiled at the request of The Republic indicate BCS bowls are paying their top executives the equivalent of what non-profits with budgets of $200 million to $500 million pay their top executives.

"When you are reaching a half-million and up for salary, is that appropriate for a non-profit?" said Miniutti. "Some put a stake in the ground and say they shouldn't be earning more than the president."

President Barack Obama earns $400,000 a year.

When compared with the private sector, compensation for top BCS execs exceeds average total pay for chief executives running U.S.-based, publicly held companies with similar or higher revenues, according to Morningstar Inc., a Chicago-based independent investment-research firm.

Morningstar, at the request of The Republic, calculated that total compensation averaged $355,965 for chief executives of 177 companies with annual revenues between $10 million and $25 million. Compensation - salary, bonuses, restricted stock awards, option awards and pensions - averaged $445,014 for chief executives at 173 companies with revenues between $25 million and $50 million.

Unique jobs

The job that top bowl executives do is not simple: They oversee mega-events and their logistics. They manage staff. They must maintain close relationships with top college-football officials. Those commissioners and athletic directors helped create the BCS, and have the power to preserve or end a bowl game's position in the BCS.

There is nothing wrong with BCS executives earning big salaries for unique jobs, said Allen Sack, a specialist in sports business and interim dean of the College of Business at the University of New Haven.

"It's free enterprise. It's supply and demand. If you have a good quality product, you make the money you can," said Sack, a member of Notre Dame's 1966 national-championship football team.

The small but influential group called Playoff PAC, which wants a national playoff system, doesn't agree. In September 2010, Playoff PAC filed a complaint with the IRS alleging the non-profits running the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls provided excessive compensation to their executives.

The IRS will not comment on the status of the complaint.

In weighing what constitutes a reasonable non-profit salary under federal tax laws, the IRS would consider the "fair-market value for services rendered," said Wayne Henry, a former IRS trial attorney who specializes in non-profit charity law. But that can be difficult to determine.

"There is nothing wrong, per se, with paying a lot of money if it's equal to the value of services performed," Henry said. "In those cases when it's very large, it could set off a red flag with the Internal Revenue Service."

Reach the reporter at craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8478.

John Zidich, CEO and publisher of The Arizona Republic, is a former member of the Fiesta Bowl's board of directors and was on the bowl's five-member executive committee from January 2010 to April 2011. The Arizona Republic is a Fiesta Bowl advertising sponsor.