Who are the highest paid coaches in college football? NCAA HC salaries

We’re already at Week 12 in the college football season and the competition for ranking places is heated up in the SEC.

On Saturday night Tennessee travel to Sanford Stadium to take on the University of Georgia, who saw their grip on the championship trophy broken by Michigan last year.

The Georgia Bulldogs fell to a 28-10 loss at Ole Miss last weekend but they haven’t lost back-to-back regular season games since the 2016, the first year in which head coach Kirby Smart took charge.

Smart has led the Bulldogs to one conference title and two national championships during his time in Georgia. The 2021 and 2022 triumphs were historic, marking the first time in the playoff era that a team has won consecutive championships. As such, it’s no surprise to see that Kirby Smart is the highest-earning head coach in college football.

Why are college football coaches paid so much?

For top college football players the NFL is the promised land, the elite level where they will compete against the best and finally start to earn the huge salaries that their talents can command. For coaches, however, the calculation is a little different.

While college players are (for now) strictly amateur, the coaches are professionals and are able to demand whatever salaries they like. In 2023 it was estimated that the the 65 football programs across the top five athletic conferences had generated a massive $3.3 billion, with more than $1 billion in television broadcasting rights alone.

With so much money in the college game schools are willing to bet big on securing the top coaching talent, offering salaries that compete with the biggest NFL earners. There are only six coaches in the NFL that earn more than the $13.2 million salary enjoyed by Kirby Smart.

There are even examples of college teams looking to poach coaches from the NFL. Eric Bieniemy was offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs teams that won two Super Bowls and was reportedly coveted by a number of NFL teams with head coaching vacancies. However he eventually opted for a return to the college game with UCLA, with whom he took a role as assistant head coach & offensive coordinator.

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