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

6. Gus Malzahn – Auburn

• 2020 Salary: $6.9 million

The SEC is going to be well represented in the top 10 as the best conference in college football. Auburn is a team that’s always competitive but hasn’t been a national powerhouse in a couple of years. They are still ranked in the top 20 for most of his time at Auburn.

Gus Malzahn was at Auburn as the team’s defensive coordinator before leaving the become the head coach at Arkansas State. The Tigers immediately fell apart as Gene Chizik couldn’t do it by himself. The Tigers learned of their error, let go of Chizik and brought Malzahn back.

That kind of desperation is what cost schools money. Then, he took the school to a 10-win season in 2017 and used that momentum to sign an even bigger contract. In 2020, his salary sits at $6.9 million. It will continue to go up from there until he makes a total of $49 million.

Malzahn has been a very good coach for Auburn, so their desperation paid off. It has to because Malzahn’s buyout is insane. If they wanted to get rid of him after the past season, which there was no indication of the sort, it would have cost them $27 million.

That kind of stability will keep even the worst coaches in their job. Maybe Malzahn hasn’t been the perfect coach to Auburn’s liking, but with Bo Nix coming off his freshman year and looking like one of the best quarterback talents in the country, maybe Malzahn can bring back those championship aspirations one day.