USA TODAY International Edition
Coaches are collecting $7M in bonuses so far
With college football’s regular season all but complete, more than $7 million in bonuses are headed toward the bank accounts of head coaches across the NCAA’s Bowl Subdivision.
And that’s just for the ones at public schools. And the amount will go higher this week as conference coach of the year awards are announced, teams play in conference championship games, bowl assignments get settled and the final College Football Playoff rankings fall into place for next Sunday’s reveal.
And then comes the postseason. Along the way, a victory by one team might actually hand a bonus to the coach of another team.
Overall, at least a dozen head coaches have racked up $150,000 or more in bonuses.
Kentucky’s Mark Stoops — whose team reached nine regular-season wins for the first time since 1977 but will not play for a championship — currently has the top total: $750,000. The Wildcats’ eighth and ninth victories each were worth $250,000 to him, and he’ll get another $250,000 if the team wins its bowl game.
Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz is next at $600,000, with $500,000 of that coming when the Hawkeyes reached eight wins for the season on Friday.
He is not assured of more based on the team’s bowl performance, but he does have an additional $100,000 coming because of the team’s recently published NCAA Graduation Success Rate figure.
Fresno State’s Jeff Tedford has earned $550,000 from his team’s onfield achievements, and he’ll likely get at least $200,000 more based on its home attendance total. He’ll be able to increase his haul in the Mountain West Conference championship game Saturday at Boise State, which could lead to another bonus because a victory might push the Bulldogs into the final CFP rankings.
He’ll also be able to add on by winning a bowl game.
However, if Boise State wins the Mountain West title, it could give a bonus to San Diego State coach Rocky Long.
Long’s contract includes a provision under which he gets $25,000 if the Aztecs beat the team that ends up being the Mountain West’s highest-ranked representative in the final CFP standings.
On Oct. 6, the Aztecs won at Boise State. The Broncos went into this weekend at No. 23 in the CFP rankings, then beat Utah State, which was the Mountain West’s highest-ranked team at No. 21. So, it seems likely that the Broncos will be the conference’s standard-bearer in Tuesday night’s penultimate CFP lineup.