In the world of college football, success is measured on and off the field. Winning games and raising trophies, sure—but also in the contracts earned by the game’s best coaches.
In 2024, college football coaching salaries reached a new level, fueled by the massive revenue from TV deals, sponsorships and the new playoff format.
As programs across the nation vie for the national spotlight and a playoff berth, it all starts at the top—at the man with a vision for the program.
So it’s not much of a surprise to see some of the eye-popping salaries from college football head coaches this year.
Who is the Highest Paid College Football Coach in 2024?
Georgia’s Kirby Smart is the highest-paid coach, with a total salary of $13,282,580 this year. Of course, Smart has led the Bulldogs to a 42–2 record and two national championships over the last three years. Overall, Smart is 99–17 in Athens and he is the first college football coach to ever receive a $13 million yearly base salary.
Smart often talks about the cost of winning … apparently it’ll run you somewhere in the ballpark of the top CEO pay structures in the state of Georgia.
Six other college football coaches earn at least $10 million per year—Dabo Swinney (Clemson), Steve Sarkisian (Texas), Lincoln Riley (USC), Ryan Day (Ohio State), Mike Norvell (Florida State) and Kalen DeBoer (Alabama).
Full List of the 12 Highest Paid College Football Coaches in 2024
Kirby Smart: Georgia’s Rising Paycheck for Continued Success
Smart’s level of success at Georgia is about as good as it can get. Now that Nick Saban has retired, Smart has only lost two games to active collegiate coaches (Gus Malzahn and Kalen DeBoer).
Georgia had gone on a record run of 42-straight regular-season wins and 28-straight SEC regular-season wins before losing to Alabama earlier this year. The Bulldogs were 11–0 against ranked opponents during that stretch.
And Smart went on this run when the SEC was at its best. The conference has produced 13 of the last 17 national champions.
Dabo Swinney: Clemson’s Long-Term Commitment
In recent years, it has become a bit of a trend to take shots at Swinney, but it seems fairly misguided. By basically any metric, Swinney is one of the best coaches in college football—and he’s paid like it.
Swinney has won two national championships with Clemson and hasn’t had a season with fewer than nine wins since 2010. He’s 175–44 with the Tigers and a three-time coach of the year award-winner.
Steve Sarkisian: Turning Around Texas
It was a bit of a surprise when Texas fired Tom Herman in 2021, but things made a lot more sense when it was announced that the program had brought on Sarkisian.
“Sark” had completely remade his image and turned his life around after a disastrous run at USC while battling alcoholism.
At the time of his hire, the talk in Tuscaloosa was that he would be the next Crimson Tide head coach when Saban retired. Instead, Sarkisian ended up with the Longhorns and officially brought the program back to championship-level play.
Texas has improved its win total every year under Sarkisian, and the Longhorns are 18–2 in their last 20 games.
Other Coaches Making Millions in College Football
This is where things get a bit interesting. While Smart, Swinney and Sarkisian are in no danger of losing their jobs whatsoever, this next tier of coaches might be dealing with some hot seats.
Lincoln Riley ($10,043,418) did coach a Heisman Trophy winner at USC, but the Trojans have faltered in big moments. He took an 11–2 USC team to the Cotton Bowl in 2022—and lost to Tulane—and the Trojans haven’t come close to the College Football Playoff. CBS recently ranked his contract as one of the worst in the nation.
Ryan Day ($10,021,250) seemingly has the majority of fans with him, but there are rumblings that the Ohio State brass is extremely upset about his lack of success against Michigan. Is it enough for him to lose his job? Only time will tell, but it does seem crazy that a coach who has never lost more than two games in a single season could be canned. Overall, he is 61–9 at Ohio State and has appeared in one national championship.
Mike Norvell ($10,000,000) is in the midst of a horrendous 2024 after a pretty disastrous ending to 2023. Norvell led the Seminoles to an undefeated 13–0 record last season, but they were left out of the four-team College Football Playoff. Instead, the team took on the Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl and lost 63–3. It was the largest margin of victory in bowl history. FSU opened 2024 by losing five of its first six games. Norvell was just extended, but we’ll see just how patient FSU is.
Kalen DeBoer ($10,000,000) is in his first season as the head coach of Alabama, jumping ship from Washington after leading the Huskies to the national championship game one year ago. DeBoer continues to be an excellent recruiter, and while no one can fill the void left by Saban, he appears to have Bama on the right track.
Brian Kelly ($9,975,000) has more wins than all other active coaches but two (Mack Brown and Kirk Ferentz), but at LSU the expectations are to win it all. And the biggest knock on Kelly is that he can’t win the big game. However, he entered this season in Baton Rouge with a 20–7 record and two bowl wins. But fans will quickly call out that six of those seven losses came to ranked opponents.
Mark Stoops ($9,013,600) is, by most metrics, the most successful football coach in Kentucky history. Sure, Bear Bryant always (rightfully) comes up, but Stoops is on another level at this point. He has more wins than any coach in Kentucky history, he has won more bowl games than any coach in Kentucky history and he has won 10 games twice during his 12-year tenure. To put that into perspective, before Stoops was hired, the Wildcats had won 10+ games in a season just two times in nearly a century.
Lane Kiffin ($9,000,000) took over an Ole Miss program that was in rough shape in 2020. The Rebels had won just 20 games over a four-year stretch and were still reeling from the controversial tenure of Hugh Freeze. Since Kiffin took over, Ole Miss has won 39 games and made four-straight bowl games.
Eliah Drinkwitz ($9,000,000) was on the hot seat to start the 2023 season, but the Tigers have gone 16–3 since then, seemingly erasing the calls for him to be fired. Drinkwitz was 17–19 over the course of his first three seasons, but things have turned around drastically since then.
Josh Heupel ($9,000,000) has turned around a Tennessee program that lost 27 games over a four-year period before his hiring. The Vols hadn’t won 10 games in a season since the Phil Fulmer era before Heupel did it in 2022.
How Performance Bonuses Boost College Football Coaching Salaries
Performance bonuses are a relatively large aspect of a contract, as they are in place to help incentivize and reward success at the highest level.
For example, in 2022 Saban signed an extension with Alabama. His annual base salary was $305,000, with a $9,595,000 talent fee. With his $800,000 retention bonus, his 2022 total salary was $10,700,000.
However, his deal had plenty of incentives. They were as follows:
SEC Championship Game—$75,000 for appearing or $125,000 for winning
Bowl Game—$65,000 for appearing in any bowl or $90,000 for playing in a bowl with an SEC tie-in or $200,000 for playing in a New Year's Six bowl or $400,000 for reaching the College Football Playoff semis or $600,000 for reaching the national championship or $800,000 for winning the national championship.
SEC Coach of the Year—$25,000 for winning
National Coach of the Year—$50,000 for winning any national award
Graduation—$50,000 if Alabama’s graduation rate is in the top 50% of the SEC or $100,000 if it is among the top four SEC teams.
When it was all said and done, Saban earned $300,000 in bonuses for that season.
How College Football Coaching Salaries Have Exploded
Steve Spurrier has a pretty legitimate case as the first $1,000,000 earner by average contract value in the mid-1990s. His salary was just a bit more than the second-highest paid coach (Bobby Bowden) and Florida just about doubled it after the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers came calling not long after.
That made Spurrier the third-highest paid coach in America. He trailed only the NFL's Bill Parcells and Jimmy Johnson. The average college football head coach made about $420,000 annually at the time.
To put that into perspective, at least 92 head coaches will make $1,000,000 or more in 2024. The number is actually higher, but we don’t have official numbers from some private schools.
So to say that things have changed would be an understatement.
More College Football on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 12 Highest Paid College Football Coaches for the 2024 Season.
