2021 NCAA football head coach salaries methodology
METHODOLOGY
To determine the total pay packages of Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches for their current contract years, Paste BN Sports requested all forms of compensation and pay reduction for the coach at all 130 schools. About 20 of the schools or athletics departments are private or are public schools covered under state law exempting them from releasing full compensation data on coaches. Schools that provided contract information were given the opportunity to review their figures. In an effort to capture the most up-to-date information about still-evolving pay reductions, those reviews occurred between Sept. 21 and Oct. 14.
Any pay the university guaranteed (even if paid by shoe/apparel company or another source) is listed as scheduled or actual “school pay.” Anything not guaranteed by the university is included in “total pay.”
A not available (–) in the chart denotes amounts from schools that are private; did not release the information; or amounts that cannot otherwise be determined. A $0 means the coach doesn’t, or did not, get compensation from that source.
EXPLANATIONS OF COMPENSATION CATEGORIES
SCHEDULED SCHOOL PAY: Base salary; income from contract provisions other than base salary that were to have been paid, or guaranteed, by the university or affiliated organizations, such as a foundation, prior to schools beginning to work with coaches to arrange pay reductions due to financial issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Examples include payments in consideration for: shoe and apparel use; television, radio or other media appearances; personal appearances. Except as noted, these amounts are based on the coach’s annual pay rate for a full, standard-length contract year; they do not reflect amounts earned for a partial year worked immediately after hiring or a partial year worked at an annual pay rate other than the current amount.
It also includes deferred payments earned annually, conditional or otherwise; contractual expense accounts (if unaudited) or housing allowance; signing and other one-time bonuses earned in the current contract year.
It does not include amounts that may have been earned as annual incentive bonuses in other years, the value of standard university benefits such as health care or the value of potentially taxable items such as cars; country club memberships; game tickets for the regular season, postseason and other sports; the value of stadium suites, travel upgrades or spouse/family travel and game tickets.
CONTRACT YEAR PANDEMIC REDUCTION: Amount of Scheduled School Pay coach will not receive during his current contract year due to voluntary or mandatory pay reductions or due to donations made by the coach related to the pandemic.
ACTUAL SCHOOL PAY: Remaining amount of Scheduled School Pay that the coach now is scheduled to receive during his current contract year, taking into account the amounts that are to be deducted or donated during the contract year.
TOTAL PAY: Sum of Actual School Pay and athletically related compensation received from non-university sources. (Effective Aug. 8, 2018, the NCAA reinstated a rule that requires athletics department employees to annually disclose athletically related income from non-university sources.)
TOTAL PANDEMIC REDUCTION: The overall amount that a coach will forgo or donate during the entirety of an agreed-upon or announced period. Such a period may cover, or have covered, parts of two contract years.
BONUSES PAID: Amount coach was paid from May 15, 2020 through May 14, 2021 for meeting personal or team-performance goals. Does not include longevity and/or retention payments. Includes payments due to head coaches, regardless of whether they distributed portions to other staff. Because schools were informed that the intent is to report amounts paid for goals achieved during the 2020-21 football season and school year, some schools provided information about applicable payments that were made after May 14, 2021. Amounts presented only for head coaches who are at the same public school that employed them as the head coach last season.
BUYOUT OWED AS OF DEC. 1, 2021: Amount school would owe coach if it fired him without cause on Dec. 1, 2021. Unless otherwise specified in a written agreement or terms provided by a school, these amounts reflect pay reductions that are scheduled to occur.
Many of these amounts are expressly subject to coach’s duty to make good-faith efforts to find another job, with income from that employment offsetting the amount owed. If mitigation and offset are not addressed in contract, coach still may have obligation to make efforts in that regard. The amount listed may be owed to coach over an extended period of time, rather than as a lump sum at termination. Amounts do not take into account per-day pro-rating for a partial contract year. Does not include longevity and/or retention payments.
NOTES
PITTSBURGH, TEMPLE AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS: The pay information listed came from federal tax returns or the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law report. Documents provide compensation for 2019 calendar year based on all income paid by the school or support organizations, including benefits, perks and performance bonuses.
AIR FORCE AND ARMY: The academies’ athletics departments now operate as private, non-profit organizations, and both decline requests for coaches’ contracts.
AMOUNTS IN ADDITION TO COACHES’ TOTAL PAY
Includes payments made by schools and/or their affiliated organizations on behalf of newly hired coaches who owed buyout amounts to their previous employer for terminating contracts so they could accept employment elsewhere; also includes portions of new and existing buyout-related loans from schools scheduled to be forgiven during the coach’s current contract year.
ALABAMA: If Nick Saban remains head coach as of the date of the completion of the team’s final regular season game, the university has agreed to pay $100,000 to Saban’s family charity, the Nick’s Kids Foundation, or another charitable organization that Saban may designate after conferring with the university.
KANSAS: Paid $600,000 on Lance Leipold's behalf to cover buyout he owed Buffalo.
TENNESSEE: Paid $3,415,352 to the University of Central Florida or an affiliated organization to cover the buyout Josh Heupel owed.
TEXAS: Paid $500,528 on Steve Sarkisian's behalf to Alabama to cover payment of loan that Sarkisian had received from that school, plus an additional $254,975 in connection with Sarkisian's tax liability for that payment
UTAH STATE: Paid $150,000 to Arkansas State to cover the buyout Blake Anderson owed. The school also has agreed to pay any taxes Anderson would owe on this amount, if any.