College Football Head Coach Salaries

[Flood]

At one point, Tom and NU had a minor salary dispute. The school was paying him something like 300k at the time and stated they were trying to send a message to the rest of CFB that NU would be competitive in salaries. Tom did not want to have his salary increased to, I think, a 600k level. I recall vividly reading him quoted with, "How much money does one man need? I'm pretty well compensated as it is."

In the end, I believe Tom agreed to an increase to 400k but only if the other 200k was used to increase assistant salaries. And that is what happened. All this from memory, and this was in a different era. These huge salaries now are verging on or beyond ridiculous. Eventually we'll have to pay 5 mil/year or more, I'm sure, for a head coach too. I just hope we can avoid something like what Iowa is going through with their lifetime contract coach. Mediocrity is a lot easier to achieve than success, so I'd rather see us with huge performance rewards than huge base salaries. Not up to me, of course. We'll see what the market dictates in the next decade.

All very interesting.

 

[junior4949]

At one point, Tom and NU had a minor salary dispute. The school was paying him something like 300k at the time and stated they were trying to send a message to the rest of CFB that NU would be competitive in salaries. Tom did not want to have his salary increased to, I think, a 600k level. I recall vividly reading him quoted with, "How much money does one man need? I'm pretty well compensated as it is."

In the end, I believe Tom agreed to an increase to 400k but only if the other 200k was used to increase assistant salaries. And that is what happened. All this from memory, and this was in a different era. These huge salaries now are verging on or beyond ridiculous. Eventually we'll have to pay 5 mil/year or more, I'm sure, for a head coach too. I just hope we can avoid something like what Iowa is going through with their lifetime contract coach. Mediocrity is a lot easier to achieve than success, so I'd rather see us with huge performance rewards than huge base salaries. Not up to me, of course. We'll see what the market dictates in the next decade.

All very interesting.

I don't know if your numbers are exactly right, but the point of your story is what I've always been told. All in all, the insane salaries coaches make pretty much make a full ride scholarship for the ones doing the actual playing look rather meager. One could almost compare college football to a Chinese sweatshop. With as many ex-athletes coming out saying they will highly discourage their kids from playing football, it's going to be very interesting to see how football evolves in the next couple of decades.

 

[Huskers19911]

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison necessarily. Most athletes play the sport because they enjoy it, but also receive a free education. I don't think sweat shop workers enjoy their jobs, plus, they probably don't get free gear/clothes for doing it.

Don't get me wrong, I do think it is silly that college athletes aren't receiving some form of compensation outside of scholarships, I just think that comparison is a stretch. Most college students go into debt after college, before getting a job. Football players shouldn't go into debt if they are on a full-ride scholarship. If they do, it shouldn't be much.

 

[Hayseed]

If the NCAA was serious about parity, there would be a coaches salary cap. But of course they're not.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

If the NCAA was serious about parity, there would be a coaches salary cap. But of course they're not.

This isn't Russia...is it? Is this Russia, Danny?

 

[NUance]

Kansas HC makes 800K. What a joke.

Bet they're spending a lot more than $800k per year on HC salaries though. They're probly paying buyout money to two guys. (They might be done paying Gill. It's been a while.)

 

[junior4949]

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison necessarily. Most athletes play the sport because they enjoy it, but also receive a free education. I don't think sweat shop workers enjoy their jobs, plus, they probably don't get free gear/clothes for doing it.

Don't get me wrong, I do think it is silly that college athletes aren't receiving some form of compensation outside of scholarships, I just think that comparison is a stretch. Most college students go into debt after college, before getting a job. Football players shouldn't go into debt if they are on a full-ride scholarship. If they do, it shouldn't be much.

I realize it was a stretch. However, there was a thread on here from a few days ago that listed what the top 20 richest programs receive per scholarship player in revenue. It's a rather tough pill to swallow when programs are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars per scholarship player that's getting very little out of it in terms of compensation. It's the players that are risking irreparable damage to their bodies. Most college students are risking money for going to college while college football players are risking so much more.

I love college football. I rarely watch NFL football. However, the money schools are throwing around these days is making college football harder and harder for me to stomach. When Michigan threw nine million at Harbaugh, all I could think was Pandora's box is wide open. I'd venture to guess Herman will be thrown at least ten by Texas. College football has become a win at all costs.

 

[zeWilbur]

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison necessarily. Most athletes play the sport because they enjoy it, but also receive a free education. I don't think sweat shop workers enjoy their jobs, plus, they probably don't get free gear/clothes for doing it.

Don't get me wrong, I do think it is silly that college athletes aren't receiving some form of compensation outside of scholarships, I just think that comparison is a stretch. Most college students go into debt after college, before getting a job. Football players shouldn't go into debt if they are on a full-ride scholarship. If they do, it shouldn't be much.

I realize it was a stretch. However, there was a thread on here from a few days ago that listed what the top 20 richest programs receive per scholarship player in revenue. It's a rather tough pill to swallow when programs are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars per scholarship player that's getting very little out of it in terms of compensation. It's the players that are risking irreparable damage to their bodies. Most college students are risking money for going to college while college football players are risking so much more.

I love college football. I rarely watch NFL football. However, the money schools are throwing around these days is making college football harder and harder for me to stomach. When Michigan threw nine million at Harbaugh, all I could think was Pandora's box is wide open. I'd venture to guess Herman will be thrown at least ten by Texas. College football has become a win at all costs.

That article was a significant oversimplification of things. Spending at the NFL level vs the NCAA level is so different it is not apples to apples. It isn't even apples to oranges. More like apples to cow. Regardless, most football players(like athletes of every other sport) in college are doing it because they love it. Take away the scholarships completely and they would still be able to field a team. Athletes are well compensated for what is required of them. Is your beef just that they are not drawing an actual salary?

Paying coaches a lot for expected results makes complete sense. Sure, winning football games leads to better attendance and tv contracts. But here is a study done that proves correlated undergrad admission applications and increased tuition revenue based on an increase in success on the football field. No other sport could prove that correlation. Academics do not want to admit it but a strong football team makes for a stronger university. Coaches salaries should reflect that.

 

[Bowfin]

Kansas HC makes 800K. What a joke.

One could look at a football coaching making $800,000 annually as ridiculous in a lot of different ways.

http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228

 

[cm husker]

Rather telling that the B1G average includes the highest single salary. My quick and probably inaccurate math adjusts the B1G average to a meager $2,272,500 sans Harbaugh. I realize these are still ridiculous salaries but shouldn't a place like Nebraska, with our relatively high resources, be paying our HC quite a bit more. Not angling to get HCMR a raise but if we want (and WE do) to be in the discussion year in and year out? The Moneyball approach wouldn't seem to fit well in CFB.

To be accurate, this is the "MEDIAN" salary which is different than "average" salary.
I would be interested in seeing the "average" salary rankings.

Median is a better determinate of "middle" than mean IF there are large outliers. But I will defer to Moraine on this.
Bo's salary started low and increased with his success. Might be the business plan with HCMR

TO would take his pay raise and distribute it among his assistants.

What would be interesting is to see the amount paid to each school's head coach and buy outs of former head coaches. KU might be in the lead on this - I think at one time they were paying for 3 or 4 head coaches at the same time.

I think - think - TO distributed his bonuses, not his raises. For example bowl and win bonuses.