Here’s the ranking of Big Ten coaches for cost-effectiveness
If ever there was an offseason that demonstrated that college football is all about the money — as long as it’s not going from the schools to the players — it was this one, with players jumping to new schools in search of a better future, coaches jumping to new schools in search of a few more bucks and schools jumping to new conferences in search of a lot more bucks.
But that was the summer, and this is the fall, which means it’s time, once again, for Big Ten football, which did its best Jim Harbaugh impression and sat out the first week of action. Well, except for future Big Ten member USC, which destroyed the Spartans of San Jose State, 56-28. (Just try doing that against a MAC squad, Trojans, or even the Spartans of Michigan State.)
Big Ten action hits the ground running (or falling down, in Nebraska’s case) tonight, when the Huskers of Corn visit the Gophers of Gold in Minneapolis in a matchup that’s practically a classic by the standards of a conference set to add Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC in less than a year. And hey, it’s just Week 1; how miserable could fans be (unless they’re in Bloomington watching OSU’s Ryan Day do his best Jim Harbaugh impression and shuffle his quarterbacks for no reason)?
So yeah, Big Ten football is here for 2023, and in honor of the season’s start, let’s rank the conference’s coaches by the only metric that matters: Dollars* (per win, that is). We’ve gotta hurry, too, before the Big Ten18 gets even larger. (Washington State keeps blowing up our phone; they’ve got the “lose to Central Michigan” thing down, but we’re gonna wait to see if they can beat Wisconsin two years in a row, too.)
(*All 2022 contract figures from USA TODAY’s head coach and assistant coach salary databases.)
Gone but not forgotten
Four coaches started 2022 in the Big Ten and are now employed (or not) elsewhere:
4. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern: $5.37 million
2022 salary: $5,372,318. Wins: 1.
Yes, the Northwestern alumnus’ squad won just one game — and that was the opener, no less, against Nebraska in Ireland. And yet, he’d still have been back if not for allegations of hazing that led the school to fire him in July. (Though the allegations weren’t enough to sweep out his assistants, including David Braun, who’ll serve as the interim boss this season.)
3. Scott Frost, Nebraska: $4 million
2022 salary: $4,000,000. Wins: 1.
Frost’s $4 million victory — which might actually be a bargain for the ’Huskers, considering he took a 50% pay cut ahead of the season — came against FCS-level North Dakota. His interim replacement, Mickey Joseph, pulled in $600,000 for the 2022 season. To top that $200,000-per-win rate on his $5.5 million salary in 2023, new ’Huskers coach Matt Rhule will need to win … 28 games. Good luck.
2. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin: $2.625 million
2022 salary: $5,250,000. Wins: 2. Another early firee, though at least he made it to October. (Barely — an Oct. 1 loss to former Badgers coach Bret Bielema and Illinois was the last straw.) His replacement, defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard was a slightly better deal, at $1.5 million total for four wins — $375,000 per — but it’s tough to top the value the Badgers got on their final coach: Luke Fickell led them to a win in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl for, uh, an unguaranteed amount, as his contract kicks in for the 2023 season. (Fickell will make $7.8 million in 2023, and $2 million for a CFP berth, so he could afford to give the Badgers a freebie.)
1. Jeff Brohm, Purdue: $637.5K
2022 salary: $5,100,000. Wins: 8.
Easily the best deal among the full-timers here, as he led the Boilermakers to the Big Ten championship game for the first time in school history (don’t ask how it went), then jumped to Louisville — his alma mater — for a cool $6 million a year. Brohm’s replacement in West Lafayette, Ryan Walters, gets a pay raise, too; the former Illinois defensive coordinator goes from $1.3 million last year to $4 million with the Boilermakers.
Coming soon
Of course, we’re less than a year away from the Big Ten becoming the Really Big Ten, with the addition of those four Pac-12 (Pac-2?) schools. Here’s how their coaches fared on a dollar-for-dollar basis in 2022:
4. Lincoln Riley, USC: $1 million
2022 salary: $11,000,000. Wins: 11. No amount of money can teach someone how to barbecue, we guess, though you’d think a 10-year, $110-million contract might teach someone how to beat Utah ... or at least Tulane.
3. Chip Kelly, UCLA: $622.2K
2022 salary: $5,600,000. Wins: 9.
That’s two straight winning seasons with the Bruins for Kelly (out of five). Last season’s losses to Oregon and USC are understandable, but dropping one-score games to Arizona and Pitt — in the Sun Bowl, no less — probably had a few UCLA fans asking for a refund.
2. Dan Lanning, Oregon: $470K
2022 salary: 4,700,000. Wins: 10.
When is a near-$5 million salary a bargain? When the guy you replace (Mario Cristobal) takes $7.9 million a year (and pays a hefty buyout to the Ducks) to head to Miami, only to win … five games. (That’s, uh, $1.58 million per win, which is almost in Florida State territory, but that’s a joke for our ACC readers, just like Cal will be.)
1. Kalen DeBoer, Washington: $281.8K
2022 salary: 3,100,008. Wins: 11.
We’re not saying the former Fresno State boss (and Indiana offensive coordinator) knows how to raid the clearance aisle, but bringing in QB Michael Penix Jr. certainly paid off, as the oft-injured ex-Hoosier passed for 4,641 yards after racking up 4,197 yards over four seasons at Indiana.
The carryovers
And finally, we have the 10 Big Ten coaches sticking around for another season — Kirk Ferentz is the upperclassman, with a tenure that dates back to 1999, when Purdue’s Walters was, uh … 13. Here’s how their 2022 performances stack up:
10. Mel Tucker: $1.9 million
2022 salary: $9,561,000. Wins: 5.
To be fair, Tucker’s figure would look much more palatable if we were going by transfers — there’s a lotta paperwork, doncha know? — rather than wins.
9. Tom Allen, Indiana: $1.1 million
2022 salary: $4,310,000. Wins: 4.
The actual cost of Allen’s wins is a little higher, considering the Hoosiers also had to shell out nearly $1.9 million to buy visits from Idaho ($1.3 million) and Western Kentucky ($550,000) — both of whom led at halftime in Bloomington last year.
8. Greg Schiano, Rutgers: $1 million
2022 salary: $4,000,000. Wins: 4.
Rutgers getting the king of Big East football for the same price per win as USC’s Riley is a lot more understandable when you see the Scarlet Knights’ Doordash tab.
7. Ryan Day, Ohio State: $798.5K
2022 salary: $8,783,336. Wins: 11.
That Ryan Day is a more cost-effective coach than Mel Tucker, Tom Allen or Greg Schiano is not probably something you needed to read this far to know. Still, at least Day was willing to announce his starting … kicker (unlike Allen, for some reason).
6. James Franklin, Penn State: $772.7K
2022 salary: $8,500,000. Wins: 11.
Should the Nittany Lions ever win the Big Ten title game, Franklin gets a $350,000 bonus. They, uh, can probably start planning out how else to spend that money now.
5. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: $875K
2022 salary: $7,000,000. Wins: 8.
With all due respect to the Floyd of Rosedale possessor, the real contract to watch belongs to Ferentz’s son Brian, the Hawkeyes’ offensive coordinator. Ferentz the Younger took a $50,000 pay cut this season, as well as a clause ending his contract if the Hawkeyes don’t average at least 25 points a game in 2023. Of 131 FBS schools last season, 85 hit that benchmark — Iowa wasn’t one of them.
4. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan: $624.2K
2022 salary: $8,114,600. Wins: 13.
Just saying: This ranking is going to be a lot more annoying to compile next year, thanks to Harbaugh’s three-game September suspension. Best we can tell, the Wolverines will save a bit of money, with Jesse Minter getting $77.1K in Week 1, Jay Harbaugh ($25K) and Mike Hart ($45.8K) combining for $70.8K in Week 2 and Sherrone Moore getting $95.8K for Week 1 (though he’ll be suspended this Saturday). What we want to know: How much is Jack Harbaugh getting for his work?
3. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota: $555.6K
2022 salary: $5,000,000. Wins: 9.
Fleck has already rowed his boat to the fifthmost wins in Golden Gophers history, though not to a Big Ten West title entering his seventh season in Minneapolis. Still, his .620 win percentage was enough to earn a deal worth $6 million a year through 2029.
2. Bret Bielema, Illinois: $538.8K
2022 salary: $4,310,000. Wins: 8.
Bielema picked up a solid raise — his salary starts at $6 million in 2023 — for going 13-11 in his first two seasons in Champaign. Then again, his 2022 squad was the first Illinois team to even appear in the CFP rankings (No. 16 in the 2022 debut) and the first Illinois team to crack the AP’s top 15 since 2007.
1. Mike Locksley, Maryland: $500K
2022 salary: $4,000,000. Wins: 8. We haven’t seen a turtle rated this high since our last visit to Rotten Tomatoes — Locksley’s salary is up to $5.5 million this season after Maryland’s first eight-win season since 2010. How long till he does his best Jim Harbaugh impression and jumps to the NFL?