College football’s 10 highest-paid coaches for 2021

Who are the highest-paid head coaches in college football? Here are the 10 coaches making the most money in 2021.

College football has become a very lucrative business for a lot of people. While many will point to the money a handful of college athletes are making through NIL deals and discuss the profits they’re able to bring in, that pales in comparison to what college coaches are getting.

While there are some college football coaches who aren’t making absolutely absurd amounts of money, coaches generally make a lot. There is a group of college football coaches who make more money than most ever could hope to make.

Here are the 10 highest-paid college football coaches, according to USA Today.

College football’s highest-paid coaches for 2021

1. Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban – $9,753,221
2. LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron – $9,012,917
3. Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw – $8,924,683
4. Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney – $8,370,775
5. Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley – $7,672,710
6. Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen – $7,570,000
7. Texas A&M Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher – $7,500,000
8. Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart – $7,133,600
9. Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day – $6,614,693
10. TCU Horned Frogs head coach Gary Patterson – $6,103,543

That’s a lot of money going around. If you were to look at all of the college football coaches out in the world, most of them aren’t making that kind of money, but these guys are making a ton.

What’s interesting is some of these guys are definitely underachieving. Mullen and Florida absolutely should be winning more than they have been, which has made Gators fans pretty upset given how much money he’s taking home at the end of the day.

Guys like Swinney and Patterson have done plenty over the extent of their career to make their respective fanbases happy to have them, but neither Clemson or TCU are really doing all that well this season. That said, both of these guys have done more than enough to earn some job security.

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