SEC has 14 of top 50 coach salaries in college football

The Southeastern Conference touts 14 of the 50 highest-paid college football coaches, the most of any league.

The SEC does not have the sport’s highest-paid coach. Alabama coach Nick Saban’s pay of $6,939,395 ranks second behind Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s $9,004,000, according to USA Today’s annual release of all 128 FBS coaches’ salaries Wednesday.

But with an average total package of more than $4.1 million per year among its 14 coaches, no conference pays more than the SEC. The Big Ten average pay is about $3.5 million among its 14 coaches.

Tennessee’s Butch Jones and Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason are ranked ninth and 13th, respectively, in total pay among SEC coaches.

Jones’ 2016 total pay is $4,110,000, ranked as the 18thhighest in FBS.

Mason’s pay is listed as $2,556,877, 44th-highest in FBS. However, that is Mason’s 2014 total compensation, the most recent available, obtained through Vanderbilt federal tax returns. As a private institution, Vanderbilt is not required to publicly release salaries like state universities are.

All 14 SEC coaches are ranked in the top 50, capped by first-year Missouri coach Barry Odom at 47th. The remaining top 50 includes 10 coaches from the Big Ten, 10 coaches from the Pac-12, eight coaches from the ACC, seven coaches from the Big 12 and one coach from the American Athletic Conference.

That lone AAC coach is Houston’s Tom Herman ($3,003,500), considered one of the top candidates for potential openings at Power Five conference schools in the offseason.

Reach Adam Sparks at 615-259-8010 and on Twitter @AdamSparks.