This Just In: CFB Head Coaches Are Paid Well
Posted on: November 19, 2014
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The annual USA Today CFB head coaches salary database was released Wednesday afternoon and it always makes for an interesting read/look. It’s not as though any of us are unaware these guys are making a ton of money, but seeing it on paper (or on your computer screen as it were) kind of makes it a little more real.
You can obviously check out the full database at the link provided above, but here are a couple quick takeaways if you’re just looking for the highlights.
Top 10 highest paid CFB head coaches:
1. Nick Saban | Alabama | $7,160,187
2. Mark Dantonio | Michigan State | $5,636,145
3. Bob Stoops | Oklahoma | $5,058,333
4. Kevin Sumlin | Texas A&M | $5,006,000
5. Charlie Strong | Texas | $5,000,270
6. Urban Meyer | Ohio State | $4,536,640
7. Les Miles | Louisiana State | $4,369,582
8. James Franklin | Penn State | $4,300,000
9. Kirk Ferentz | Iowa | $4,075,000
10. Steve Spurrier | South Carolina | $4,016,900
Big 12 head coaches:
Oklahoma – Bob Stoops $5,058,333
Texas – Charlie Strong $5,000,270
TCU – Gary Patterson $4,008,150
Oklahoma State – Mike Gundy $3,500,000
Baylor – Art Briles $3,135,146
West Virginia – Dana Holgorsen $3,080,000
Kansas State – Bill Snyder $2,900,000
Texas Tech – Kliff Kingsbury $2,605,300
Kansas – Charlie Weis $2,500,000
Iowa State – Paul Rhoads $1,808,025
33 Comments
Ferentz, laughing all the way to the bank…
I think they are ALL laughing all the way to the bank!
what a joke, do not know how he manages to hold on to that when he is getting pasted by the likes of Minn, I would like to hire his lawyer or make a living in Iowa, haha!
Dang truth. Lol. Its past comical..
He better be banking cause he’s not going to see anything like that in his life again. He hit the lotto and it will run out soon.
Iowa would lose a LOT of money firing him, kirk got a great contract for himself.
What have Sumlln and Strong done to be paid in the top five of all coaches in the country!?
The same thing every highly paid person has done: negotiate well.
Most highly salaried people are not ‘worth’ what they’re paid…but they convinced someone to pay what they asked.
Stoops and others on here do bring in a lot more then the University pays for their football departments, including salaries and paying for stadiums. They even earn enough to support all of the Title IX sports forced on them by them by the government, and the others that do not even come close to paying their way. However, after about the top 20 or so colleges in football (and the same number at big basketball schools) that is not usually the case, and Football and all other athletics are supported through tuition, fees, etc. Sports is more of a meritocracy then some other pursuits, though, and to pay coaches like Sumlin or Strong based on what the previous coach earned, or on what they MAY do with the team in the future, seems like a waste of money. Since they started them virtually at the top of the range what will the incentive be later on? And look at what Tech got by signing Kingsbury through 2020 and paying him millions- what if he continues to be a poor coach? And who says Sumlin’s success wasn’t simply because he had the most dynamic college football player that Switzer said he had ever seen? It makes more sense to have these folks prove some success before throwing money at them
Largely agree, though the same argument could be made with CEO pay, too. And then the counter argument: that someone else could have achieved the same results for a lot less. Similar to your comment on Sumliin.
At some point the ‘worth’ of anything is simply the tangible expression of someone else’s willingness and ability to pay whatever that sum is. Tulip bulbs in early modern Holland are the classic example.
I agree with much of that Jed but the bulbs are an example of a classic bubble, and thus very transitory. These numbers reflect increasing inflation in Coaches salaries and it seems to me that the AD’s and the board of regents too often approve of higher and higher salaries with no real basis for it other then the feeling that “if we don’t pay it then someone else will” and from deciding that there is only one “good fit” for their school and they must pay whatever it takes to get him!
‘Transitory’ is only seen in retrospect and every ‘bubble’ looks like it’ll go on forever before it bursts. it wasn’t too long ago that coaching salaries were those of professors, and in many places still are. TV money has driven them higher in schools that can command that money.
I’d argue that you could do quite well at all but a few schools with keeping an AD and then cleaning house on coaches every 5-7 years and bringing in young blood.
If, for whatever reason, the TV money sags, coaching salaries will tank as well. And the public once was crazy for ukulele bands, so who knows?
There is a basis for it, it’s called supply and demand, which you basically said with “only one good fit for their school.”
It’s nice to be in great demand, or so it seems.
Because the state of Texas
Coach at the 2 biggest programs in the 2nd most populous state.
Stoops crack staff is 7th highest paid in all of CFB surpassed only by LSU, BAMA, Clemson. TX, AU and Ohio State.
Crack staff?
Stoops’ crack has a staff? Dayum.
In a great way.
staff on crack?
Why in the hell is dantanio the 2nd guy on the list. He’s good but seriously?
Even with this year’s debacle, Stoops deserves his. Sumlin, D’antonio and Skrong- WTF?Urban needs a raise though.
Saban making $137, 695 per week is just crazy. I get that he’s a damn good coach and his teams are producing on the field but…….it’s football……Kind of reminded me of this……
I don’t disagree with that sentiment entirely, but the standards for selection are much higher in the NFL than the military. From a physical standpoint, just about any NFL player could be a soldier, but very few soldiers could make the NFL.
“just about any NFL player could be a soldier”
Soldier? Probably. Marine? Highly doubtful.
I know, Marines are on the Navy team. Still, I’ve always liked this ‘un.
Hmm, I think I would let people call me names for having a horrible game plan for a few years at that money.
Never go to Kansas for a math degree…
$/win = why has my computer frozen it’s smoking now it’s on fire
Speaking of laughing to the bank, how ’bout Charlie Weiss. He’s either in the top 5 or just barely out of it, somewhere north of 4.6 mil. with Notre Dame and Kansas both chipping in to pay him not to coach at either of those schools.
Yes, and that is the very definition of irony……paying him a large sum of money to come coach and keep paying him that large sum of money to get him out of Dodge. Kansas should have made Weis work the rest of his contract off with the Jayhawk field crew.
Does this include the pay from the coaches show?
What name doesn’t belong in that top 10 list? I’d have to go with Franklin at Penn State. That makes NO sense. I was surprised Dantonio was bumped ahead of Stoops. Of all the Big 10 schools, Michigan State seemed like one of the least likely to be able to pony up that kind of cash.
This is a poor referendum on American society. We have so many problems as a nation. Our schools are under funded. Our roads are under funded. Millions of kids are hungry. $31.1 million per year is what these coaches make. What do they do that is worth that kind of money? Nothing absolutely NOTHING. Yes, they bring in a lot of money to the school. But, they have to. Look at the price of admission to the games now. It is ridiculous how much money we pay to support these coaches.
I love OU. I love football. Bob Stoops is one of the best coaches in America. But he is not worth 5,058,333. Imagine how many homeless children could be fed for an entire year by his 1 week pay check!