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College Football: 10 Highest Paid Coaches in NCAA in 2016

By John Richardson

Oct 8, 2016; Piscataway, NJ, USA; The National Championship coaches trophy on display outside High Points Solutions Stadium before the start of the game between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Michigan Wolverines. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 8, 2016; Piscataway, NJ, USA; The National Championship coaches trophy on display outside High Points Solutions Stadium before the start of the game between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Michigan Wolverines. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 22, 2016; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh prior to the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 22, 2016; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh prior to the game against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /

Jim Harbaugh

Total Annual Salary: $9,004,000

If you would have told me a coach made $2 million more dollars than Nick Saban before today, I would have assumed he didn’t coach college football. The reality, though, is that a man without a conference or national championship is the highest paid coach in all of college football. Michigan needed a big-time hire before the 2015 season, though and got one in Harbaugh.

To be fair to Michigan and Harbaugh, though, he has proved he can win at the collegiate level before. Harbaugh turned Stanford into a college football championship contender years of irrelevance. He has also proven he knows how to coach on any level, having guided the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance.

Even for all of that, though, it is still tough to comprehend how he is worth more as a college coach than many of the names behind him. Most of those coaches are being paid for their past, while Harbaugh is being paid for the future.

Next: SEC Football: Takeaways for Each Team from Week 8

One question that remains, however, is what can Michigan do if Harbaugh wins big? Can they pay him $15,000,000 a year? If so,  I think it’d be high time to acknowledge that something is seriously wrong with the college football pay scale.

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