Update: Minnesota spokesman Paul Rovnak reached out to tell me the original reporting was incorrect -- PJ Fleck has taken a voluntary, unspecified pay cut. He has not been furloughed. We will update as more information becomes available.
Original article below.
Boise State this week became the first FBS university to institute furloughs among its football coaching staff, but we knew at the time the school would not be the last.
We now have another.
As the University of Minnesota preps to furlough 200 senior leaders across its payroll, Golden Gophers head coach PJ Fleck confirmed he will be among that group, along with head men's and women's basketball coaches Richard Pitino and Lindsay Whalen.
Fleck is set to make $4.6 million in 2020, meaning a one-week furlough will dock him in the range of $88,000.
One aspect that makes furloughs different than pay cuts is that furloughed employees are supposed to be barred from performing work activities while serving their leave. Furloughed employees typically serve their leave at their discretion; the university is conducting its furloughs by the end of the fiscal year, which falls on June 30.
Saying there's "going to be certain sacrifices we all have to make," Fleck indicated he would be open to soliciting donations and corporate sponsorships in order to mitigate budget shortfalls elsewhere.
“This new norm is going to be an even better norm,” Fleck told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “That doesn’t mean you’re going to have even more resources. That just means you have to think better, you have to do something better for a longer period of time.”
Fleck is 23-15 in three seasons at Minnesota. He led the Gophers to an 11-2 season in 2019, capped by a victory over Auburn in the Outback Bowl and the program's first AP Top 10 finish since 1962.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.