New CCU AD Chance Miller’s contract is three years for $1.2 million

New Coastal Carolina athletic director Chance Miller stands to make $1.2 million at least by taking the helm of CCU’s athletic department.

The former University of South Carolina senior deputy athletics director signed a three-year deal with CCU, receiving $400,000 yearly to oversee the Chants’ athletic operations. Miller’s predecessor, Matt Hogue, who officially steps down as athletic director to take a different role at CCU July 15, 2024, made $217,000 a year, The Sun News reported in 2020.

The Sun News obtained Miller’s contract via a Freedom of Information Act request with Coastal Carolina University.

Miller’s contract also includes incentives and perks. In addition to receiving free rounds of golf at The Hackler Golf Course or initiation fee and annual membership fees for a local club at CCU’s discretion, Miller can also make a maximum of $30,000 in yearly bonuses for job performance.

Miller’s biggest incentives pertain to his ability to generate revenue from athletics and improved academic performance. These opportunities include:

• A $5,000 bonus for a 25 percent increase in annual season ticket sales for football, baseball, and men’s and women’s basketball compared to the previous year

• A $5,000 bonus if contributions to Chanticleer Athletic Foundation increase by 25 percent compared to the previous year

• A $5,000 bonus for increasing gross name, image, and likeness (NIL) revenue by 25 percent compared to the previous year

• A $5,000 bonus if student-athletes receive an Academic Progress Rate of 980 or higher, a statistic measured by the NCAA

Miller’s contract also included incentives for football bowl game appearances and making the NCAA tournament for baseball, men’s and women’s basketball teams. The contract also stipulates that if Miller leaves Coastal before the end of the deal, he won’t receive any annual incentives he earned during that final year at CCU.

The NIL incentive for Miller comes as the Coastal Carolina Athletic Department sees athletes’ compensation as a critical issue that must be addressed now.

Current football coach Tim Beck has said that Coastal has lost out on recruits because CCU couldn’t match NIL offers. Now-retired baseball coach Gary Gilmore has previously expressed his disdain for NIL because larger programs use it in tandem with the transfer portal to take some of his best players.

“There’s not a level playing field,” Gilmore said in a press conference June 2, 2024.

Indeed, from an NIL perspective, Miller is known for his fundraising abilities and during his tenure at USC, On3, a sports media outlet that covers college football and tracks NIL deals, reported that Miller raised $3 million in NIL initiatives.