Jay Sawvel Donates Salary To Aid in NIL Efforts, Staff Retention

LARAMIE -- "You don't have time to wait."

That's how Jay Sawvel justified his decision to give $125,000 of his own salary back to the program in the form of revenue sharing, he confirmed on Saturday. Wyoming's head football coach also handed over a portion of his annual retention bonus, another roughly $100,000, to ensure he could keep certain staffers.

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Though he only confirmed with a head nod, failing to elaborate, Sawvel gave almost double that amount last offseason, according to a source familiar with the situation.

"I thought that with what we had returning player wise, with where we were at budget wise -- I thought we could have a really good (transfer portal) cycle here -- we needed a shove a little bit, and we needed a little extra."

Sawvel is entering the third season of his five-year, $5.8 million contract. His base salary is roughly $1.1 million, excluding bonuses.

"There was one vehicle and one means to do it, and that was to do it yourself," he added.

Wyoming's NIL budget for football is nearly $2 million, according to sources, up from roughly $750,000 in 2025. The NCAA has capped spending at $20 million, annually.

"I'll tell you what, Jay is all about the team," the school's longtime athletics director Tom Burman said on Saturday. "He cares about his staff and his players. It was his idea, we didn't come to him. He knew we were struggling with getting to the number we wanted to get to from a rev share perspective and he was like, 'I want to help. I want to be part of the solution.'

"It's awesome. I tip my hat to him."

Though that number has raised significantly, and Sawvel said he was able to pick up three interior offensive linemen and a veteran quarterback, Tyler Hughes, for example, because of that, the headlines dominating the local news of late is the denial from the state's Joint Appropriations Committee of a $6 million request from Burman and the athletic department.

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The misnomer, he said, is that money will go toward Name, Image and Likeness, lining the pockets of student-athletes. That is not the case, he continued.

Wyoming, as part of the House Settlement, will forgo $550,000 a year for the next decade. The new-look Mountain West is still awaiting a television rights deal. That is expected to be significantly lower, to the tune of a reported $1 million-plus. Insurance costs, Burman added, are skyrocketing.

Sawvel said the football program essentially has two full recruiting calendars nowadays, costing the department thousands in extra revenue. The Cowboys signed 20 transfers during the recent two-week window.

Earlier this month, the JAC voted 3-9 for sweeping cuts of the university itself, too, including a $40 million reduction to the school's block grant.

During those visits from prospective players, across the board, Sawvel added, they have been impressed with facilities, the people and the City of Laramie. That doesn't include a $12.5 million request for state matching funds or the denial of Burman's request.

Sawvel said he wants the whole university to do well, from the school of Energy Resources to the Law School, but added he is responsible for representing the football program, the "Front porch of this university."

Going backward, the 54-year-old said, is not the right move.

"We should be spreading our message to as many places as we can, because it's a great place," Sawvel continued. "I mean, we got, what, 12,000 students? We need to shoot to get to 14 or 15 instead of sitting there and taking a cut."

He wasn't done there.

"A budget is like the human body, you can cut certain things and it can be like scrapes and scratches. That heals and you don't really notice it," he added. "But there's other things. It's like a knife wound -- and that's deep, takes a long time to heal, and it's always going to leave a scar. I think when people look at it that way, and you start looking at certain things in this university of what's proposed and what's being talked about, that could be a generational issue for people in this state, not just a two year thing.

"... Once you cross a certain line, you don't recover and that's in everything."

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players