The Average Major-College Football Coach’s Salary Is $1-Million

The average salary for major-college football coaches has topped $1-million for the first time, according to a survey published today by USA Today.

Average pay among the head coaches in Division I-A, the NCAA’s top competitive level, increased 9 percent in the past year. And the tally does not include the perquisites, like cars and country-club memberships, that many top coaches receive.

This year more than 50 coaches are making more than $1-million, up from five in 1999. A dozen earn more than $2-million, the newspaper found.

Bonus pay represents an increasing share of coaches’ salaries, and more and more contracts give coaches academic incentives to keep their players eligible. Academic bonus pay, however, pales in comparison to bonuses coaches earn for winning, the newspaper reports.

Average academic bonuses are highest in the Big Ten Conference, at about $64,000. Bonuses for winning games are the most in the Southeastern Conference, at $478,571.

Compared with football coaches, college presidents earn far less money. The median total compensation for 182 presidents and chancellors of public research universities and university systems last year was a little less than $400,000 annually, a Chronicle study found last month. —Brad Wolverton