The next time you see a couple of state troopers escorting Les Miles or Nick Saban at an LSU or Alabama football game, don’t get angry that the coach, surrounded by about 100 beefy football players, feels the need for additional protection from fans. It turns out they’re not there to protect the coaches; they’re there to carry their bulging wallets.
Of the highest paid public employees in each state, 40 are college football and basketball coaches who combined, pull in an eye-popping $129.1 million, according to 24/7 Wall Street, a service that provides research in several areas of business, education, economics and politics.
That’s an average of $3.225 million per year.
The remaining 10 highest paid were mostly in academics, including four college presidents, three state medical school professionals, a nursing supervisor, a commissioner of higher education and an associate professor.
Of the 40 coaches, only six—four football coaches and two basketball coaches—are paid less than $1 million a year and one of those, University of Massachusetts basketball coach Derek Kellogg, receives $994,500 per year.
The 28 football coaches make a combined $95.6 million, an average of $3.41 million per year in salary while the 12 basketball coaches combined to make $33.5 million, an average of $2.79 million annually.
The University of Alabama’s Nick Saban had been the highest-paid football coach at $6.95 million but the University of Michigan is paying first-year coach Jim Harbaugh a whopping $7 million a year. LSU’s Les Miles is paid $4.3 million a year.
For the most part, of course, their salaries are not primarily funded by taxpayers. Generally, their paychecks are underwritten by foundations supported by ticket sales and advertising deals. Harbaugh, for example, receives only $500,000 of his $7 million package from the school.
Still, the disparity in the salaries of coaches and typical state employees is enough to rankle some state employees. At Boise State University, for example, both the football and basketball coaches make a more modest salary of $500,000 but that is still more than 10 times the $40,000 or less earned by more than a third of Idaho state employees.
To counter criticism of the high salaries, some college athletic programs point out that successful coaches can bring a university tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Saban is an example of that. Before he was named head coach at ‘Bama, the school’s athletic program brought in $68 million. In 2013-2014, revenue was $153 million.
Still, critics say that athletic programs at the top tier schools like Alabama, constitute a business and coaches should not receive a cent of public funds in salary.
Which may have prompted the fable of a coach’s retort (and we paraphrase here): “I never saw anyone pay to watch a chemistry class.”
Here is the list of each state’s highest paid public employee:
ALABAMA: NICK SABAN FOOTBALL COACH $6.95 M
ALASKA: JAMES JOHNSEN COLLEGE PRES. $325,000
ARIZONA: SEAN MILLER BASKETBALLCOACH $3.07 M
ARKANSAS BRET BIELEMA FOOTBALL COACH $4 M
CALIFORNIA JAMES MORA FOOTBALL COACH $3.35 M
COLORADO MIKE MacINTYRE FOOTBALL COACH $2.01 M
CONNECTICUT KEVIN OLLIE BASKETBALL COACH $3 M
DELAWARE EKEOMA WOGU NURSING SUPERVISOR $236,156
FLORIDA JIMBO FISHER FOOTBALL COACH $5 M
GEORGIA MARK RICHT FOOTBALL COACH $4 M
HAWAII NORM CHOW FOOTBALL COACH $550,000
IDAHO BRYAN HARSIN FOOTBALL COACH $800,000
ILLINOIS JOHN GROCE BASKETBALL COACH $1.7 M
INDIANA TOM CREAN BASKETBALL COACH $3.05 M
IOWA KIRK FERENTZ FOOTBALL COACH $4.08 M
KANSAS BILL SELF BASKETBALL COACH $4.75 M
KENTUCKY JOHN CALIPARI BASKETBALL COACH $6.01 M
LOUISIANA LES MILES FOOTBALL COACH $4.3 M
MAINE SUSAN HUNTER COLLEGE PRESIDENT $250,000
MARYLAND MARK TURGEON BASKETBALL COACH $2.248 M
MASSACHUSETTS DEREK KELLOGG BASKETBALL COACH $994,500
MICHIGAN JIM HARBAUGH FOOTBALL COACH $7 M
MINNESOTA JERRY KILL FOOTBALL COACH $2.5 M
MISSISSIPPI HUGH FREEZE FOOTBALL COACH $4.3 M
MISSOURI GERY PINKEL FOOTBALL COACH $4.02 M
MONTANA CLAY CHRISTIAN COMM. HIGHER ED $351,000
NEBRASKA MIKE RILEY FOOTBALL COACH $2.7 M
NEVADA KAYVAN KHIABANI ASSOC. PROFESSOR $981,475
NEW HAMPSHIRE MARK HUDDLESTON COLLEGE PRES. $333,658
NEW JERSEY KYLE FLOOD FOOTBALL COACH $1.25 M
NEW MEXICO BOB DAVIE FOOTBALL COACH $772,690
NEW YORK SHASHIKANT LELE MED SCH. DEPT. CHAIR $551,000
NORTH CAROLINA MARK GOTTFRIED BASKETBALL COACH $2.06 M
NORTH DAKOTA ROBERT STICCA UNIV. SURGERY CHAIR $758,000
OHIO URBAN MEYER FOOTBALL COACH $5.8 M
OKLAHOMA BOB STOOPS FOOTBALL COACH $5.25 M
OREGON MARK HELFRICH FOOTBALL COACH $3.15 M
PENNSYLVANIA JAMES FRANKLIN FOOTBALL COACH $4.1 M
RHODE ISLAND DAN HURLEY BASKETBALL COACH $627,500
SOUTH CAROLINA STEVE SPURRIER FOOTBALL COACH $4 M
SOUTH DAKOTA MARY NETTLEMAN MED. SCHOOL DEAN $500,000
TENNESSEE BUTCH JONES FOOTBALL COACH $2.96 M
TEXAS CHARLIE STRONG FOOTBALL COACH $5.1 M
UTAH KYLE WHITTINGHAM FOOTBALL COACH $2.6 M
VERMONT TOM SULLIVAN COLLEGE PRES. $429,093
VIRGINIA FRANK BEAMER FOOTBALL COACH $2.42 M
WASHINGTON MIKE LEACH FOOTBALL COACH $2.75 M
WEST VIRGINIA BOB HUGGINS BASKETBALL COACH $3.25 M
WISCONSIN BO RYAN BASKETBALL COACH $2.75 M
WYOMING CRAIG BOHL FOOTBALL COACH $832,000
28 FOOTBALL COACHES: $95.6 MILLION ($3.41 MILLION AVERAGE)
12 BASKETBALL COACHES: $33.5 MILLION ($2.79 MILLION AVERAGE)
50 TOTAL COACHES: $129.1 MILLION ($3.225 MILLION AVERAGE)
10 ACADEMIC, OTHER: $4.72 MILLION ($472,000 AVERAGE)
TOTAL: $133.73 MILLION ($2.67 MILLION)
Louisiana Voice 
how much of their salaries are paid by booster clubs?
That varies from school to school.
Seems as I remember s discussion of making the college athletes “minor league professionals”, along with the coaching staff. How much of the money the athletic programs bring in go to academics? Not sure what. But, something is wrong and it may be public support for games more do than learning. Don’t see it changing.
I don’t think Alaska has a college football team and only a couple of basketball teams so they have an excuse, but apparently;Delaware Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, the Dakotas, and Vermont don’t have their priorities right and/or fail to understand economics like the rest of us. P. S. I wonder what will happen to Saban if Alabama doesn’t catch fire against the rest of the ranked teams on their schedule?
Stephen, I caught the Finebaum show on the SEC channel. Not even 20 mins. into the show a caller came on demanding that Saban be canned and Kirby Smart be named the head coach. Thats’ kind of interesting since it was the offense that blew up and that’s under Lane Kiffin or Kiff-Kiff as he’s also known.
NEVADA KAYVAN KHIABANI ASSOC. PROFESSOR $981,475
Now just what’s the story here?
You got me on that one. I noticed that, too, and it looks like Nevada pays is professors.
With all due respect, Tom, I believe you are off the mark here. These coaches’ salaries are NOT paid by taxpayers. Athletic departments in every state I know of are required to be self-supporting. They operate on self-generated revenues which come from the fan base. In order to generate these revenues, the athletic programs must be successful which makes the fans willing to pay the ticket price and make the donations necessary to perpetuate the athletic programs.
The LSU Athletic Department does not receive taxpayer funding. Les Miles’ salary does not come from taxpayers. It is paid through the Athletic Department or the Tiger Athletic Foundation both of which are self-supporting.
Fans are willing to pay for a winner which is their choice. They are also free to choose to NOT pay when athletic programs are not successful. That is how capitalism works – if you have a good product, people are willing to pay for it.
Over the last 15 years, LSU athletic programs have been some of the most successful in the country. As a result, the fans are willing to pay more to see this success continue. They are not forced to do this – they choose to do so which does not cost the State of Louisiana one single penny of taxpayer funding.
In addition, I believe it can be shown success in athletic programs also leads to greater donations, as a whole, to the university’s endowment funds. I would also point out the LSU Athletic Department makes a sizable donation each year to the university’s general scholarship program. It is not forced to make this donation, it does so voluntarily because the success of the athletic programs has led to greater revenue which allows it to do so.
The truth of the matter is if Louisiana State Government had to generate revenue the same way as the LSU Athletic Department, the State would be even MORE revenue poor than it is now.
If you the read the post all the way through, you will see that I specifically said that most of the coaches’ salaries are paid from independent foundations and not the taxpayers. In fact, I even mentioned that of the $7 million paid Harbaugh at Michigan, only $500,000 is paid by the school. I discussed the pros and cons of the source of the salaries as well as the economic impact of the athletic programs (see the reference to Alabama).
What I wrote was not a condemnation of athletics. I go to as many LSU baseball games as possible because I love the game and used to coach it. It was merely an examination of the top paid public employees in each state without commentary.
However, since you brought it up, I know that colleges have to be competitive to win but let’s face it, coaches’ salaries have gotten a bit out of hand. $7 million to coach a game is way out of whack. Smaller schools like Southeastern, Louisiana Tech and others like them cannot hope to recruit and keep a good coach. If he wins, he moves on. Before the salary explosion, coaches like Joe Aillet and Maxie Lambright considered their jobs at Tech their careers. Now that job is just a stepping stone.
When Paul Dietzel came to LSU, I believe his salary was in the $5,000 range—and LSU wouldn’t even pay his moving expenses. I’m certainly not suggesting a return to that level of pay but again, it’s gotten completely out of hand.
So there is my commentary.
Not a Miles fan here, but:
1. How much does LSU pay Les, vs. how much comes from TAF and other sources?
2. How much does the LSU athletic program earn annually? $133.7 million per BRBusiness Report in 2013-2014.
3. LSU Athletics gave $10.05million to the Academic side per an Advocate article in July. So they more than cover his salary, plus athletics is an incredible economic engine for the city and state.
So, the coaches shouldn’t be scapegoats for politicians defunding higher education. Hopefully our next governor tries to get University funding levels back up to pre-Jindal days, but that may take decades.
Tom Benson is subsidized by LA taxpayers. His salary skyrockets over other people in this state.
Tom – I stand corrected…for part of it. 🙂
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/forde-yard-dash–college-football-s-most-overpaid–underpaid-coaches-050823033-ncaaf.html