University of California President Janet Napolitano has approved a new policy that ties the bonuses coaches and athletic directors can get to the academic performance of student athletes.
The university's governing board is scheduled to discuss the incentive pay policy on Wednesday. It was developed by a committee Napolitano created in September to address concerns over low graduation rates for the football, men's basketball and six other teams at UC Berkeley.
The policy holds that athletic directors and coaches with winning records will be ineligible for bonuses unless their teams maintain a minimum level of academic achievement that is based on how many athletes on scholarships remain in school with a full-time schedule and while maintaining a 2.0 grade point average.
Currently, only Berkeley's head football coach has his bonuses linked to how well his players do in the classroom.
