Different year, same story: Nick Saban is college football's top power broker. That of course shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with the sport, considering that in late 2013 Saban agreed to yet another contract extension with Alabama, this one raising his salary to an unprecedented $7 million. What's more, that salary represents 35% of Alabama's total coaching budget and 6% of its annual athletic expenses, both second-highest among college football coaches. Add in the fact that last year Alabama spent nearly $42 million on football, the most of any team in the country, and it becomes plenty obvious that no college football coach in the nation even comes close to matching Saban in the power game.
But following Saban is a an interesting and competitive list. Four members from last year's edition make a return, while five new names join the ranks. Second on the list is TCU's Gary Patterson, who ranked fifth last time around. Even more impressive, the present analysis is based on his current contract and not the new extension he reportedly received days ago that will likely increase his $4 million salary. Last year TCU spent $35 million, or 40% of its total athletic spending, on football, clearly highlighting the sort of power Patterson has in Fort Worth.
The other returning members are Oklahoma's Bob Stoops (No. 3), Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (No. 8) and LSU's Les Miles (No. 10). All three have been in their current roles for quite some time; Miles, with the shortest tenure of the group, is wrapping up his tenth season in Louisiana. Stoops is the highest-paid of the three, earning a salary of just over $5 million. And while Ferentz's famously expensive buyout is still in place, it's now down to $13 million and lower than those belonging to Stoops, Miles and Missouri coach Gary Pinkel (No. 5).
College Football's Most Valuable Teams 2014
Yet none of those coaches can top the buyout of one of the more surprising new members of our list: Clemson's Dabo Swinney. He's the lowest-paid of the ten men here, with a salary of $3.2 million. Yet if Clemson were to fire Swinney next year, the school would reportedly owe him close to $21 million, which is just $4 million less than it spent on its entire football program last year. And the $22 million of that spending not going into Swinney's pocket makes up nearly 30% of Clemson's total athletic expenses, the fourth-highest mark for coaches on our list.
There are plenty of ways to define power, but for us it clearly all comes down to money. Our methodology looks not only at each coach's salary, but also at what portions of his school's total coaching budget and athletic spending it comprises. We also consider each coach's football budget and how much it would cost his employer to terminate his contract at the end of the year. We feel these different metrics offer an idea of a coach's power both within his athletic department and across the ranks of all college football coaches.
Half of the list is comprised of coaches from the SEC, revealing once more just how seriously football's top conference takes its craft (joining the coaches mentioned above are Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin and Auburn's Gus Malzahn). The fifth and final coach not from the SEC comes out of the Big Ten: Michigan State's Mark Dantonio. In February the eight-year Spartans coach signed an extension that raises his annual salary to $3.6 million. Just missing the cut this year are Steve Spurrier, Mike Gundy and Paul Johnson, who have all made appearances in previous editions of our power list.
