Millionaires are sprouting up everywhere this spring in the world of college basketball.

Coaches are zipping from one school to the next in search of big bucks. Others are staying put and being rewarded big time. The general mindset at these schools seems to be three words: Whatever it takes.

Kentucky wooed Billy Gillispie away from Texas A&M for $2.3 million a year, and Florida is expected to pay dearly for Billy Donovan’s loyalty to the Gators. Texas lured women’s coach Gail Goestenkors away from Duke with a $1 million annual salary. Then, Baylor topped that by paying Kim Mulkey even more.

“Programs want to be successful,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said, “and to do that, you have to get the best people.”

The coaching salary explosion signals a shift in athletic department thinking, several school officials said. Schools now view men’s and women’s basketball coaches like they do football coaches. It’s an investment.

“If you can invest in a program that will get you on national TV, people value that exposure,” Connecticut athletic director Jeffrey Hathaway said. “Obviously somebody’s making a value judgment that it’s important to that institution.”

Men’s basketball coaching salaries are always going up. Athletic directors can justify the spending because it’s a revenue sport. According to the Department of Education, the average Division I-A men’s basketball program made almost a $1.7 million profit during the 2005-06 academic year.

That’s a tidy sum compared to football, the sport that keeps most athletic departments afloat. The Texas football team brought in $60.9 million in revenues and had $18.4 million in expenses in 2005-06, according to the data. That left $42.5 million for the other Longhorn sports.

That kind of profit margin gave Alabama the means to make Nick Saban the first $4-million college football coach in January.

“You can’t limit salaries on a national basis or even a conference basis,” NCAA president Myles Brand said. “But I think we can prompt our members and our conferences to say, ‘At what point do you believe in your context for your institution, for your conference, that this does not make sense?’

Florida coach Billy Donovan holds up the NCAA national championship trophy. Florida is expected to reward Donovan handsomely for his loyalty and success.

“Each school is going to have to figure that out for themselves.”

The numbers generated by the Department of Education via the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act are viewed with some skepticism by athletic departments. Schools do their accounting in various ways. But this is a known fact; women’s basketball loses money hand over fist.

The UConn women’s basketball program made almost a $1 million profit in 2006. Tennessee made $45,126. They are the exceptions. Not one school in the Big 12 finished in the black that year. Baylor came close, having lost $287,757.

The average Big 12 women’s basketball program lost $1.6 million during the 2005-06 academic year, according to the data. Yet athletic directors such as Pollard, Texas’s Chris Plonsky and Baylor’s Ian McCaw are handing out

million-dollar salaries to keep or get the coach they want.

“If you want to get talent, you have to compensate talent,” Plonsky said. “They do that here in a very fair way. I think it’s wonderful the marketplace is where it is, because I can tell you they were prepared to keep her (Goestenkors) at Duke. But I can tell you money was never the main thing in our conversation with Gail.”

McCaw said he expects women’s coaching salaries to rise for many years to come.

“I think it’s largely the visibility of the sport,” McCaw said. “Attendance is growing, there’s national television exposure and that’s caused institutions to be more serious about women’s basketball.”

John Meadows worked for Coors Brewing for 34 years before retiring in 1999. He’s become a top agent for women’s coaches and represents eight Big 12 coaches. He handled Bill Fennelly’s new deal at Iowa State, which will pay him $10.6 million over 12 years.

The Cyclones averaged 8,906 fans at 16 home games this year. Fennelly’s radio show is carried all over the state. He’s one of the most recognizable sports figures in Iowa.

“People relate to him, they’re proud and the university is proud of him,” Meadows said. “They’re finally recognizing that as an asset.”

There is a downside to all this newfound wealth, several coaches said. Texas A&M women’s coach Gary Blair isn’t sure if women’s coaches are ready for the scrutiny that comes with big-time contracts.

“Who knows what’s right?,” Blair said. “But at the same time, the coaches of these high programs are having to live in that glass bubble just like our male counterparts.”

Mulkey doesn’t consider herself the face of Baylor University. But she’s not oblivious to the increased spotlight on women’s basketball.

“The pressures to win and the stress involved is not going to change, because most coaches are motivated and feel the pressure and stress regardless of what their salaries are,” Mulkey said. “I just think we’re playing catch up right now.”