Highest-paid college football coaches since 2010: Nick Saban tops list
- College football coaching salaries have increased significantly since 2010.
- Nick Saban is the highest-earning coach of the last 15 years, making over $112 million.
- The list of top earners includes coaches like Dabo Swinney, Jimbo Fisher, and Kirk Ferentz.
- Earnings are based on annual compensation and self-reported outside income, excluding bonuses or buyouts.
Quite a bit has changed in college football since 2010.
At that time, Nick Saban had only two national championships to his name. Georgia was a habitual underachiever desperately trying to win its first national title since 1980. Dabo Swinney was mired in a 6-7 campaign in his second full season at Clemson, with many wondering whether the recently-promoted wide receivers coach was fit for the job.
The Big East and Pac-12 existed. Kirk Ferentz was running a consistently successful, tough-minded Iowa program that routinely struggled to put up points — proving that even in a rapidly evolving sport, some things are timeless.
There’s at least one other notable shift in the sport during those 15 years: The most decorated coaches have grown significantly wealthier, racking up big wins on the field and cashing even bigger paychecks away from it.
Fifteen years ago, the highest-paid coach in the sport as chronicled by the USA TODAY coaches salary database was making just shy of $6 million. Last season, Georgia’s Kirby Smart topped the list at more than twice that amount, bringing in $13,282,580.
Coaching salaries and all the financial perks tucked within contracts have skyrocketed in that decade-and-a-half. As an already extremely well-paid profession has gotten that much more lucrative, who has made the most?
Here’s a look at the 10 head coaches who have earned the most money since 2010, based on basic annual compensation from their schools and self-reported outside income:
Note: This list only takes into account money earned as a college head coach. It also doesn’t include buyout money, bonuses or money earned during the current 2025 season, nor compensation earned as an assistant coach during that span.
Highest-paid college football coaches of the past 15 years
1. Nick Saban (Alabama; 14 seasons): $112,753,556
The most successful coach of the past 15 years was also the most well-compensated. As Saban led Alabama to five national championships from 2010-24, he made nearly $20 million more than the next-closest coach on this list.
2. Dabo Swinney (Clemson; 15 seasons): $94,001,506
Last month, amid a 1-2 start, Swinney defended his Clemson tenure and said he wouldn’t retire to a beach if the school decided to get rid of him. If he changed his mind, he would be able to afford it.
3. Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M, Florida State. 14 seasons): $82,352,567
To think, Fisher was paid only slightly more to coach for 14 largely successful seasons at Florida State and Texas A&M than he was not to coach the final eight years of his contract with the Aggies, who gave him a record buyout of more than $76 million when he was fired in 2023.
4. Kirk Ferentz (Iowa, 15 seasons): $72,986,000
The 70-year-old Ferentz is in his 27th season at Iowa, making him the longest-tenured active FBS coach. For all the jokes about his plodding offenses, there’s a reason he’s stuck around so long: Since going 4-19 in his first two seasons, he has won 65.5% of his games.
5. James Franklin (Penn State, Vanderbilt; 14 seasons): $69,292,771
Even with his well-documented struggles against top-10 opponents, Franklin built Penn State back into a national powerhouse and, prior to that, turned Vanderbilt into a consistent winner.
6. Kirby Smart (Georgia; nine seasons): $69,291,380
Smart has been a college head coach for the shortest period of anyone in the top 10, but he’s more than made up for lost time at Georgia, leading his alma mater to national titles in 2021 and 2022.
7. Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State. 15 seasons): $67,500,000
8. Jim Harbaugh (Michigan, Stanford; 10 seasons): $66,725,001
Though Harbaugh only coached in college for 10 of the 15 seasons during this stretch, he was regularly among the highest-paid coaches, turning Stanford into an improbable national power and leading Michigan to its first national championship in a generation.
9. Mark Stoops (Kentucky; 12 seasons): $59,088,850
While he’d object to characterizing his employer as a basketball school, Stoops has won at a place few have. His teams have struggled of late, though, with a 1-9 record in SEC play since the start of the 2024 season.
10. Kyle Whittingham (Utah; 15 seasons): $56,280,851
The 65-year-old Whittingham has hinted at retirement, a move that would end one of the more impressive coaching runs in college football this century. Utah has gone 171-87 in 22 seasons under Whittingham.
