USC sports figures are highly compensated

Pat Haden took on a challenging job when he was hired to oversee a USC athletic program that had been hit hard with NCAA sanctions.

The private school rewarded him by making him one of the nation’s most highly compensated athletic directors.

Haden earned about $2.2 million in total compensation in 2011, according to USC’s federal tax return for that fiscal year.

The period covers July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. Records for 2012 are not available. USC provided the return in response to a request from The Times.

Haden, who succeeded Mike Garrett as athletic director in August 2010, was not listed among USC’s highest-compensated employees on its 2010 return.

In 2011, the former Trojans quarterback, Rhodes scholar and formermember of USC’s board of trustees earned a base salary of $1,203,888, an additional $800,000 in bonuses and incentives, $204,585 in other reportable income, $24,500 in retirement and other deferred compensation and $14,705 in nontaxable benefits.

“Pat Haden’s compensation is set by the president and approved by the compensation committee of the USC Board of Trustees,” USC President C.L. Max Nikias said. “We believe that Pat Haden is the very best AD in America. He took a significant pay cut when he accepted my offer to become the AD at USC. He is a great administrator, excellent communicator and has proved to be a great fundraiser.

“He inherited a very challenging athletics department with the harshest penalties imposed by the NCAA and has done an outstanding job turning things around. The Trojan family is lucky to have him.”

According to USA Today’s annual survey, Vanderbilt’s David Williams is the highest-paid athletic director at $3.2 million.

USC football Coach Lane Kiffin earned about $2.6 million in 2011, then-football assistant Monte Kiffin about $1.8 million and then-basketball coach Kevin O’Neill about $1.7 million.

USC’s football team finished 10-2 in 2011 but was ineligible for a bowl game because of NCAA sanctions. Lane Kiffin was paid a base salary of $2,218,553. He also earned $101,000 in bonuses and incentives, $231,355 in other reportable income, $24,500 in retirement and other deferred compensation and $18,683 in nontaxable benefits.

Lane Kiffin’s earnings were about $200,000 more than in 2010.

Monte Kiffin, Lane’s father — and college football’s highest-paid assistant in 2010, according to USA Today — in 2011 made $1,569,961 in base salary, $35,000 in bonuses and incentives, $147,475 in other reportable income, $24,500 in retirement and deferred compensation and $14,619 in nontaxable benefits.

Monte Kiffin resigned after the Trojans’ Sun Bowl loss to Georgia Tech last December, which left the Trojans with a 7-6 record, and is now the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator.

Monte Kiffin’s earnings were about $300,000 more than in 2010.

O’Neill, who was fired in January, was paid a base salary of $1,471,016 in 2011. He earned $199,050 in other reportable income, $24,500 in retirement and other deferred compensation and $23,183 in nontaxable benefits.

His income represented about a $35,000 increase from 2010.

gary.klein@latimes.com

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