Prediction: Next UA coach will start at $8,000,000+

After some recent extensions, a coach making $8,000,000 today would rank 7th in the SEC.

This is before Heupel likely gets a raise this off-season. Shane Beamer has one in the works.

How high will $8,000,000 rank by December 2023 or 2024?

Relatedly, the new TV deal starts in 2024.

Salaries as of today
Kirby $10.25
Saban $10.70
Kelly $9.50
Fisher $9.00
Kiffin $9.00
Stoops $8.60
Napier $7.10
Freeze $6.50
Drinkwitz $6.00
Pittman $6.00
Leach $5.50
Heupel $5.00 Likely getting raise
Beamer $2.75 Getting raise
Lea NA

Pittman’s salary now is $5 million, not $6 million. It makes me wonder if other salaries in that chart are incorrect.

Heupel and all his assistants received raises and extensions in August. I too doubt how accurate the chart is and it’s clear there are incorrect contract amounts included.

I’m sure they are including his $1M a year he’ll get automatically after his 3rd year in his new contract. Almost every National sports publication that lists SEC salaries that I’ve seen, has him at $6M. They may do that with every other coach who has automatic tenure $ in their contracts.

These are all from either ESPN or USA Today stories.

That is interesting. The recent stories I saw had Pittman at $6. (here, here, here)

Kiffin, Stoops, Drinkwitz and Heupel include recent raises. Heupel got his in August before they knew they’d have a great season.

And Matt Rhuel just got $9.25 a year for 8 years at Nebraska. Haven’t seen Fickle’s deal yet at Wisconsin

“Almost $7.9.”

I am amazed that students across D-1 universities are not marching in the streets. Understanding television (entertainment) contracts dumping huge amounts of cash into conferences and athletic departments, I am simply raising the question of why students (and other university stakeholders) aren’t asking why these funds are not offsetting accelerating tuition and other fees. Is Kirby Smart worth 4.5 million dollars more than CSP per year and even more to the question, is CSP and others in this lower middle tier worth 6 million dollars per year and particularly when it is understood this level of compensation is only the tip of this inflationary iceberg impacting an entire school campus? We have states such as Arkansas in a frenzy to reduce state taxes thus where will the revenue come from to meet these accelerating costs?

Frankly, after watching Auburn’s latest hiring I am struck by the lack of reasonable control in their hire. If Hugh Freeze wants a chance at opportunity then fine…give him 3,5 million with incentive options.

Perhaps because the majority of coaching salaries are paid for by donations earmarked for athletics and not paid for by tax dollars.

Not really any justification for students to get mad when it’s the Athletics department that is bringing the money in, as long as the department is fully self-funding.

Now, students at schools that charge Athletic Fees to fund the madness? Yes, they should be saying “I’m not paying an extra $5/hour each semester so we can try to keep up in an arms race that only the Power 5 can sustain.”

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Agreed.

To be sure, there are Power 5 schools who charge student athletic fees. Last time I looked, which was 2-3 years ago, Auburn and Florida State both did. So let’s look…

FSU – yep, still $7.90 per hour

Aubie tucks its athletic fee into a global Student Services Fee, or at least it did in 2019. I don’t see that specified now, but the student services fee is still there, $892 per semester. It was $838 in 2019. And I found the confirmation: $104 of that $892 is for athletics. They charge the same whether you take 6 hours or 18, but it’s there.

I suspect there are others in the Power 5 who do the same.

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