Where SEC coaches 2018 salaries rank nationally
USA Today updated its NCAA football coaches salary database on Wednesday.
No surprise – Alabama’s Nick Saban is the highest-paid coach in the SEC, taking home a total of $8,307,000 in 2018 for being the head coach of the Crimson Tide.
Ohio State’s Urban Meyer (making $7,600,000) and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh (making $7,504,000) occupy the next-two spots, but the SEC dominates the top 10 with five coaches. In fact, the SEC even has the most coaches in the top five highest-paid (3).
Here’s where all 14 SEC coaches rank nationally:
- No. 1– Nick Saban, Alabama ($8,307,000)
- No. 4– Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M ($7,500,000)
- No. 5– Gus Malzahn, Auburn ($6,700,000)
- No. 6– Kirby Smart, Georgia ($6,603,600)
- No. 8– Dan Mullen, Florida ($6,070,000)
- No. 21– Will Muschamp, South Carolina ($4,200,000)
- No. 23– Mark Stoops, Kentucky ($4,000,000)
- No. 25– Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee ($3,846,000)
- No. 36– Chad Morris, Arkansas ($3,500,000)
- No. 37– Ed Orgeron, LSU ($3,500,000)
- No. 44– Matt Luke, Ole Miss ($3,000,000)
- No. 46– Derek Mason, Vanderbilt ($2,812,523)
- No. 49– Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State ($2,600,000)
- No. 56– Barry Odom, Missouri ($2,350,00)
USA Today’s list does not clearly state why Morris was ranked above Orgeron even though both will make $3.5 million. Two potential reasons for Morris getting No. 36 are that Arkansas had to pay SMU a buyout of $2 million. Morris also has a much larger current buyout of $12.5 million, while Orgeron’s is roughly $5.3 million.
Buyout and bonus numbers can be found in the full updated USA Today. At this time, the list is showing zeros for assistant pay, a figure that will presumably be updated in the near future.