There’s an old adage that has proven the test of time in the game of football. It’s a philosophy that the SEC has bought into since its inception and still holds today.

That old adage – “defense wins championships” – has held true for more than a century at the college level, although you couldn’t tell it by the 2015 College Football Playoff national championship game. But that was an anomaly. Defense, indeed, wins championships, despite what the scoreboard read earlier this month.

It’s that line of thinking, fair or not, that probably explains why SEC defensive coordinators make far more money than do SEC offensive coordinators,  for the most part, anyway. A total of 10 SEC schools paid their defensive coordinators more than their counterparts on offense. That’s 10 out of 13; private school Vanderbilt does not disclose salary figures.

Five SEC schools paid their DCs more than $1 million. South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp led the way, making $1.7 million last season as Auburn’s DC. The average salary for a defensive coordinator in the SEC last season was just below $900,000.

The SEC paid its offensive coordinators an average of a little more than $600,000. That’s quite a difference.

Here’s a stunner; Alabama DC Kirby Smart (now the head coach at Georgia) pulled in $1.5 million last year, a whopping $820,000 more than Alabama OC Lane Kiffin ($680,000) despite the fact that Kiffin was probably the most valuable coordinator in college football in 2015. Alabama scored 45 points in the national championship game and needed practically every one of those in its 45-40 victory over Clemson.

Ironically, it’s LSU, long noted for its defense, which bucked the system. Last year LSU paid OC Cam Cameron $1.5 million and DC Kevin Steele (now the DC at Auburn) $1 million. Cameron was the only OC in the SEC to make that much and LSU also led the SEC in total salary for its two coordinators.

Only Arkansas and Kentucky also paid its offensive coordinator more, but not by much. Both schools paid the same salaries to its coordinators with the OC bringing in $550,000 and the DC $500,000 at each.

Defense is still king in the SEC. Despite the dizzying, fast-paced, hurry-up, wide-open offenses that more and more schools have been moving toward, it’s still defense that continues to be perceived as the more important aspect of the game; certainly in the SEC, anyway.

It’s been tested in the past and it’s always risen to the occasion. It’s survived the wishbone, the West Coast, the Fun-And-Gun, and just about every other offense thrown at it over the years.

And it will eventually catch up to the high-flying offenses of today, at least that’s what history has revealed. To do that, the best defensive minds in the game must be employed and paid well. The SEC is doing that and always has. It’s in the conference’s DNA.

That won’t change anytime soon.

Here is the full list of all SEC teams in order of combined salaries:

  • LSU: Defense (Kevin Steele) $1 million, Offense (Cam Cameron) $1.5 million
  • Auburn: Defense (Will Muschamp) $1.7 million, Offense (Rhett Lashlee) $600,000
  • Georgia: Defense (Jeremy Pruitt) $1.3 million, Offense (Brian Schottenheimer) $950,000
  • Alabama: Defense (Kirby Smart) $1.5 million, Offense (Lane Kiffin) $680,000
  • Texas A&M: Defense (John Chavis) $1.6 million, Offense (Jake Spavital) $500,000
  • Missouri: Defense (Barry Odom) $625,000, Offense (Josh Henson) $500,000
  • Florida: Defense (Geoff Collins) $600,000, Offense (Doug Nussmeier) $500,000
  • Arkansas: Defense (Robb Smith) $500,000, Offense (Dan Enos) $550,000
  • Kentucky: Defense (D.J. Eliot) $500,000, Offense (Shannon Dawson) $550,000
  • South Carolina: Defense (co- John Hoke, Lorenzo Ward) $650,000, Offense Co- Shawn Elliott, Steve Spurrier, Jr.) $400,000
  • Tennessee: Defense (John Jancek) $520,000, Offense (Mike DeBord) $500,000
  • Mississippi State: Defense (Manny Diaz) $575,000, Offense (co- Billy Gonzales, John Hevesy) $286,625
  • Ole Miss: Defense (Dave Wommack) $560,000, Offense (co- Matt Luke, Dan Werner) $300,000
  • Vanderbilt: Not available