8 Most Underpaid Coaches in College Football
Prior to the 2001 season, no college football coach made more than $1 million a year. Now, more than half of the 128 coaches in FBS make seven figures, and plenty are far above that threshold.
The massive increase in revenue schools collect from TV deals, merchandise and ticket sales has made it possible for college coaches to cash in, but some seem grossly underpaid compared to their overpaid counterparts.
Several underpaid coaches have garnered contract extensions this offseason, such as Oregon's Mark Helfrich (from $2 million to $3.5 million per year), Mississippi State's Dan Mullen (from $3 million to $4.275 million) and Ohio State's Urban Meyer (from $4.5 million to $6.5 million per year), but even with those big boosts, plenty of coaches aren't making nearly as much as you'd expect.
Here are eight of the most glaring examples of underpaid college football coaches, chosen based on the money they make and sizing it up next to other comparable coaches whose salaries are far greater. We don't expect a coach in the Sun Belt to make what someone in the SEC earns, but if their success to this point doesn't line up with the pay of similar coaches who haven't done as well, then we might consider them underpaid.
Art Briles, Baylor
1 of 8
Annual salary: $3.135 million
Where would Baylor be without Art Briles?
That's a serious question. Would this program be anywhere near where it is right now had Briles not come over from Houston in 2008 and turned one of the worst Power Five conference outfits into a powerhouse?
Briles has won 40 games in the past four seasons. He's won at least a share of the last two conference titles, getting the Bears into a big-money bowl game each time. Along the way, he developed Robert Griffin III into a Heisman Trophy winner.
And let's not forget the gleaming new stadium that was built as a direct result of increased interest in Baylor's program thanks to that success.
Briles is the fifth-highest-paid coach in the Big 12, according to USA Today's coaching salary database. His last raise came in 2013, when he was extended through the 2023 season as the school looked to keep him from being wooed by the then-vacant Texas job Charlie Strong got (and was paid $5 million annually for).
If Briles gets into the College Football Playoff this year, another raise is going to be more than due.
Matt Campbell, Toledo
2 of 8
Annual salary: $482,537
At just 35 years old, Matt Campbell is one of the youngest coaches in the country, but he's already won 25 games in three seasons and performed better than predecessor Tim Beckman did. Toledo has twice extended his contract, first midway through the 2013 season and then prior to last season's GoDaddy Bowl win over Arkansas State, but he makes less in a year than what Nick Saban would earn for just one regular-season game.
And Campbell isn't just getting by; he's putting up big numbers along the way.
"The Rockets have posted a more potent offense in each of Campbell's three full seasons, finishing atop the conference in points per game in 2014," Bleacher Report's Ben Kercheval wrote.
Toledo has long been a farm team for up-and-coming coaches, with Saban and Gary Pinkel both starting their careers there. Campbell is building something and seems willing to stick around for a while, but he'd be more apt to stay in that mindset with some extra cabbage.
David Cutcliffe, Duke
3 of 8
Annual salary: $1.84 million
David Cutcliffe won a share of an SEC West title, four bowls and more than 60 percent of his games in six-plus seasons at Ole Miss, but that wasn't enough to keep his job there. He's done far worse from an overall standpoint at Duke, but people view him as the program's savior.
Before hiring Cutcliffe in 2008, Duke hadn't reached a bowl game or won more than four games in 13 straight seasons. By his fifth year, the Blue Devils had begun an unprecedented streak of three straight bowl appearances. In the middle was a surprise run to the ACC title game, and though they've failed to win any of their postseason contests, the last three seasons have been among the best in program history.
Cutcliffe was most recently given a raise after the 2012 season—his contract was extended to 2019, when he'll be 65. He makes slightly more than rival coaches at North Carolina and North Carolina State but less than most Power Five conference coaches.
Willie Fritz, Georgia Southern
4 of 8
Annual salary: $400,000
The pay scale for a coach at a program that just joined the FBS ranks isn't very high, but after one season, Willie Fritz has shown his Georgia Southern team isn't going to be like most of the recent FCS upstarts to join the top level. The Eagles went 9-3 in their first season of play, going unbeaten in the Sun Belt. But because they were a probationary program, they weren't eligible for the conference title or a bowl bid.
There's no NCAA rule about a coach being unable to get a big, fat raise after one year, however. Yet Fritz remains one of the lowest-paid coaches in the country.
Maybe that will change after this season, assuming Georgia Southern has another big year and can parlay the exposure of a bowl game (as well as potential upset opportunities at West Virginia and Georgia) into the kind of revenue that would help pad Fritz's contract.
Bryan Harsin, Boise State
5 of 8
Annual salary: $1.47 million
At this rate, Bryan Harsin might be thinking a coach gets a pay raise after every season, as he's landed a boost in compensation following each of his two seasons as a head coach.
Harsin made $700,000 in his one and only season at Arkansas State, where he led the Red Wolves to a 7-5 record but skipped out to go back to Boise State—where he had been an assistant from 2001-10 and where he had played quarterback—as the replacement for longtime coach Chris Petersen.
That job earned him a bump to $1 million, which then got scrapped in favor of his new contract following Boise State's 12-2 season and win over Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl.
However, Harsin is still on the bottom half of the FBS pay scale despite quickly returning the Broncos to their old perch as the gold standard of non-power programs. Jim McElwain was making $1.5 million at Colorado State before leaving for Florida.
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame
6 of 8
Annual salary: $1.457 million
First, a disclaimer regarding Brian Kelly's salary listed above: Since Notre Dame is a private school and isn't required to divulge contract information like public schools must, the figure USA Today lists in its latest salary database is likely far below what he really makes.
In 2011, Kelly earned more than $1.5 million in total compensation, including bonuses, according to tax returns obtained by USA Today. But reporter Steve Berkowitz noted the school said Kelly is "permitted to receive compensation from external sources" that wouldn't necessarily show up on the university's tax return for things such as apparel contracts or media commitments.
Kelly likely made at least $2 million last year, if not more. But even at that amount, he's massively underpaid considering the fact that he's been able to sustain success at Notre Dame—unlike his predecessors.
That includes Charlie Weis, who continues to get more than $2 million per year from Notre Dame despite being fired in 2009. Weis was also making $2.5 million per year at Kansas, which fired him midway through last season.
Dabo Swinney, Clemson
7 of 8
Annual salary: $3.175 million
Dabo Swinney just edges out Art Briles as the highest-paid coach on this list, earning about $40,000 more than the Baylor coach. But that makes him no less underpaid than Briles considering the fact that he's turned Clemson into a consistent power.
The Tigers have been good plenty of times before, including in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but there were often hiccups along the way. Swinney has put together four straight years of at least 10 wins, and his 42 victories since 2011 are tied for third-most in FBS behind only Florida State's Jimbo Fisher and Alabama's Nick Saban, tied with Stanford's David Shaw and Michigan State's Mark Dantonio.
The average 2014 salary of those four coaches is $3.68 million, and that's not including whatever compensation might be missing from Shaw's contract because of Stanford being a private school or the big raise Fisher got this winter.
Swinney's lack of salary is made up for by how well the school pays its assistants. Chad Morris was making $1.3 million as offensive coordinator before taking the SMU job, while defensive coordinator Brent Venables' $875,000 salary in 2014 would have made him the highest-paid coach in the Mid-American Conference.
Matt Wells, Utah State
8 of 8
Annual salary: $575,000
Matt Wells will be 42 when his Utah State team starts its third season under his leadership. Since taking over the program in 2013 following Gary Andersen's move to Wisconsin, he's piloted the Aggies to 19 wins. Combined with Andersen's 11-win season in 2012, it's the best three-year run in program history.
Wells has gotten one raise already, in April 2014, but not to the level other coaches at the mid-major level have seen of late. Memphis' Justin Fuente, whose Tigers won a share of the American Athletic Conference last year, got a raise from $1.007 million to $1.4 million, while Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck saw his salary balloon from $392,500 to $800,000 after turning the Broncos around from 1-11 in 2013 to 8-5 last year.
If the Aggies remain at this level or keep getting better, the school will need to up the ante or risk Wells skipping out like Andersen did.
Unless otherwise noted, all coaching salaries courtesy of USA Today.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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