NCAA paid former president Mark Emmert $4.3 million in severance as part of departure in 2023

Former NCAA President Mark Emmert received a nearly $4.3 million severance payment from the association when he departed in 2023, the association’s new federal tax records show.

The documents, which the association provided Thursday in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports, state that Emmert received $4,281,279 during the NCAA’s 2023 fiscal year, which ended Aug. 31, 2023.

Emmert’s pay from the association for the 2022 calendar year was just over $3.3 million, the records show.

The NCAA announced in April 2022 that Emmert would be stepping down by mutual agreement with the association’s Board of Governors. He remained on the job until Charlie Baker officially began as president on March 1, 2023.

Emmert had served in the position since October 2010. That gave him the second-longest run in the job to that of Walter Byers, who headed the organization from 1951 to 1988.

In April 2021, the board voted to extend his contract through Dec. 31, 2025. Prior to that move, the most recent action on Emmert’s contract had been to extend his deal through 2023, with an option to extend it through 2024.

Under IRS rules, while non-profit organizations — including the NCAA and college athletics conferences — make most financial disclosures on a fiscal-year basis, they are required to report employee compensation figures on a calendar-year basis. They must use the calendar year completed during the given fiscal year. For the NCAA, the fiscal year covered by the new return ended Aug. 31, 2023, so the 2022 calendar year is used for compensation reporting.

As a result, the new return showed both Emmert's pay for the 2022 calendar year and the information about his severance because the severance was part of the NCAA's expenses during its 2023 fiscal year. Baker's pay was not disclosed on this return because he began working for the association during the 2023 calendar year.

Other information revealed by the new return included:

▶The association had a little more than $61.5 million in outside legal expenses during its 2023 fiscal year. That was its greatest total since 2020, when it reported $67.7 million in such expenses.

Going back to fiscal 2014, when the Alston antitrust case case began, the NCAA has reported $432.9 million in outside legal expenses and more than $130 million in legal-cost recoveries from insurance.

▶As of Aug. 31, 2023, the association had just over $565 million in endowment funds, nearly all of which was in a "board designated or quasi-endowment." That represents an increase of nearly $108 million in the value of those funds since the same date in 2022. A quasi-endowment involves money that is intended to be retained and invested, but unlike a permanent endowment, its principal can be spent. 

The return also showed that two other key members of Emmert's staff also received significant severance payments in 2022 or 2023. Former senior vice president of communications Bob Williams received just over $400,000 as part of his overall pay for 2022 of slightly more than $815,000. Cari Van Senus, Emmert's former chief of staff who later became senior vice president of governance, policy and human resources, received nearly $500,000 in severance in fiscal 2023, the return showed (she was with the NCAA until June 30, 2023); her total pay for the 2022 calendar year was just over $545,000.

The tax return that the NCAA filed last year showed that Donald Remy, another top-level member of Emmert's executive team, received a severance payment of just over $2.4 million during the 2021 calendar year.

Emmert's total pay for the 2022 calendar year was basically unchanged from his total for 2021. His base salary for 2022 of $2.845 million represented about an $80,000 increase from 2021. But in 2021 he received a bonus of just over $80,000, and in 2022, he received no bonus.