Having a top head coach is great, but increasingly in college football, having innovative coordinators is just as important.

Therefore, as coordinators become hotter commodities, salaries for the top offensive and defensive minds in the country are on the rise.

On Wednesday, USA TODAY published its annual roundup of assistant coach salaries, and it should come as no surprise that the SEC had the most assistants making at least $1 million. As you can see below, nine different assistants in the conference made at least nine-figure salaries this past season:

  • LSU DC Dave Aranda — $1,800,000
  • Texas A&M DC John Chavis — $1,608,000
  • LSU OC Matt Canada — $1,505,000
  • Alabama DC Jeremy Pruitt — $1,300,000
  • Auburn DC Kevin Steele — $1,200,000
  • Alabama OC Brian Daboll — $1,200,000
  • Tennessee DC Bob Shoop — $1,155,000
  • Florida OC Doug Nussmeier — $1,144,225
  • Ole Miss DC Wesley McGriff — $1,000,000

With some of those coordinators not being retained by new coaching staffs, it’ll be interesting to see which new coordinators make the list in 2018.

It’s safe to say there will be some new names making nine-figure salaries in the SEC in 2018.