Nick Saban Tops USA Today's List of Highest Paid College Football Coaches

USA Today revealed the salaries for every FBS head football coach Wednesday, and it comes as little surprise that Alabama's Nick Saban tops the list.

Saban has led the Crimson Tide to incredible success during his eight years at the helm, including three national championships. He is deservedly a cut above the rest in terms of pay, but the top 10 is littered with other high-profile coaches as well:

Rank	Coach	School	Total Pay
1	Nick Saban	Alabama	$7,160,187
2	Mark Dantonio	Michigan State	$5,636,135
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	LSU	$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

While many expected names reside near the top of the list, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio stands out at No. 2. Dantonio has done very well during his eight years with the Spartans having won two Big Ten titles and a Rose Bowl, but he doesn't have the same star power as the likes of Saban, Steve Spurrier and others.

Even ESPN.com Big Ten reporter Brian Bennett didn't expect Dantonio to rank that highly:

As pointed out by Gerry Ahern of USA Today, Saban coincidentally coached at Michigan State previously, which suggests the Spartans job is an extremely valuable one:

Iowa's Kirk Ferentz also raises some eyebrows at No. 9 since the Hawkeyes haven't won a conference title since 2004. Per Dirk Chatelain of Omaha.com, Ferentz's salary isn't exactly consistent with his team's performance:

Regardless of that, USA Today's list makes it abundantly clear that coaching in a power conference is extremely lucrative.

As college football's popularity continues to grow, that figures to become truer with each passing year.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter