College football’s top 25 highest-paid coaches for 2020 season

12. Ryan Day – Ohio State

• 2020 Salary: $6 million

Ryan Day is moving up on this list over the next couple of years. He just signed a new contract extension that will pay him $6.5 million next season and then $7.6 million in 2022. That would probably not so ironically put him barely ahead of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for one of the highest-paid coaches in college football.

Day became head coach when Urban Meyer retired after the 2018 season. Quarterback Dwayne Haskins also left, going in the first round of the NFL Draft. The Buckeyes lost a ton of talent and one of the best head coaches in college football. They did not miss a beat.

For most of last season, the Buckeyes were one of the best teams in college football behind quarterback Justin Fields. It was them and LSU dominating teams from the jump. When they gave up 21 to Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic Owls, some might have wondered if Ohio State would be their normal, dominant selves. The next week, they destroyed a Cincinnati team that ended up being ranked for most of the season. Michigan State, Wisconsin, Penn State and most importantly Michigan couldn’t come close to beating Ohio State.

Day has experience in the NFL, so teams will be calling when they get an opening, so the Buckeyes have to pay to keep the pros at bay. He was a quarterbacks coach with the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s rare to jump from one great coach to the next, and it’s going to cost a lot to make it happen. We’ll see Day much higher on this list next year and continued growth throughout his tenure.