SMQ: How much does a win cost in college football?

With Clemson set to pay three coordinators more than $1 million in 2019, let’s look at how much FBS teams paid coaching staffs per victory in 2018.

The first full week of February offered an opening to think further about compensation in college football. In a world where the laborers on the field do not get compensation beyond room and board and tuition at institutions they are required to attend in the bargain, that means looking at coaching payouts when we are talking about real dollar figures.

That opening came when Clemson’s board of trustees voted on February 8 to boost the salaries of an assistant coaching staff that was already paid better than the assistants at all but one other FBS program. With defensive coordinator Brent Venables already making $2.2 million in 2018, Clemson elected to boost the salary for their co-offensive coordinators Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott to seven figures as well.

In the process, Clemson joined Ohio State as the second FBS school with three different assistant coaches pulling in a million or more in salary. As schools draw in more revenue annually, more continue to offer high salaries not just to their head coaches but also to retain their coordinators and other assistants. Even strength and conditioning coaches are increasingly bumping up into higher tax brackets, with eight of them paid $500,000 or more in 2018.

What this raises is a question about how much schools pay to win football games. In the spirit of answering this question, this week’s Sunday Morning Quarterback will dive into the remuneration figures of each team to determine which spend the most to achieve success and which are able to achieve more with less.

A quick disclaimer about excluded teams

Not every FBS school is required to provide the financial data on their coaching staffs. Public universities, obviously, have no choice in offering up that information to anyone who makes a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act. That is how USA Today collected the data we are using to look at teams here today in terms of .

Private universities are another story. Schools like Notre Dame, USC, and Miami are not required to report nearly as much information to the general public. There is an ability to parse out some of that data from the Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis site. But it does not offer data yet for the 2018 season, nor does it break down the data finely enough to look at the difference between salaries for head coaches and assistants.

As a result, only 105 of the 130 FBS schools are included in this study. That means only three of last year’s four College Football Playoff semifinalists and 11 of the 12 teams in the New Year’s Six are represented in the dataset.

While a large contingent of parochial institutions and other private schools are not included, however, we still have a great opportunity to look at how money shapes success in college football.

The most and least expensive victories in college football

Over the past year, the one victory pulled off by Rutgers cost the Scarlet Knights more than $5.3 million in coaching salaries. Head coach Chris Ash pulled in $2.2 million for the effort in his third season at the helm in New Jersey, while his assistants ranked 44th among FBS teams in the dataset in terms of earnings.

Among teams that finished with winning records and made bowl games in 2018, Auburn dealt out more salary per victory to their coaches to reach eight wins. Texas A&M was right behind them in Jimbo Fisher’s first season at the helm, spending nearly $1.6 million per win on their 9-4 finish.

Considering just teams that reached 10 or more wins, Michigan spent more to reach double digits than any other program in the country. The Wolverines dished out more than $1.33 million in salary to their coaches for each win they pulled off.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Buffalo was the one team in the FBS that spent less than $150,000 dollars per win this season. And no Power Five program earned more for their coaching expenditures than Washington State, which was able to spend win 11 games while spending just $611,000 per victory.

What it takes to win a conference championship and a New Year’s Six spot

Thinking a little bit more about spending money, Ohio State and Alabama spent more than $1 million to win the Big Ten and SEC respectively. Unlike Washington State, Apple Cup rival Washington spent just under $1 million as they conquered the Pac-12. Clemson and Oklahoma round out the Power Five.

There is a clear divide between winning a Power Five title and claiming one of the Group of Five leagues. With lower revenue coming to their universities, Group of Five champions in turn have to dish out less money than the average FBS team.

UCF, the American Athletic Conference champion, parlayed that into a New Year’s Six bowl invitation for the second straight year. The Knights were able to win a dozen games for just over one-third of a million dollars on coaching per victory.

LSU, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Texas were all able to make it to major bowl games thanks to winning nine or more games in the regular season. Along with a Notre Dame team that was not included in this dataset, this group sets the baseline for reaching a New Year’s Six bowl. Only LSU spent less than $1 million per win, falling $3,000 short of the mark. All of the other four spent seven figures on each win.

Final thoughts

Spending millions on coaching salaries has become the norm across college football, both for head coaches and for assistants. Stories like Clemson’s recent boost in salary to their offensive co-coordinators is going to become more normal in the future.

Because revenue is constantly getting higher with each new season, universities continue to have to find places to dispense that money. Head coaches have already been down the path of boosted salaries, with even 14 different Group of Five coaches earning more than $1 million per year. Even as those salaries grow in the coaching market, assistants also see their average compensation rising each season.

Spending isn’t a prerequisite for victory, and laying out more cash than other programs doesn’t guarantee success. But by and large, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Seven out of the 10 teams that handed out at least $10 million in total coaching salaries in 2018 reached the New Year’s Six, including all three of the College Football Playoff participants not named Notre Dame.

Even when considering Group of Five teams and the race to earn a major bowl berth, only Memphis and Cincinnati spent more on coaching than UCF. So coaching certainly does have a clear effect on success rate for a program, no matter which level they might perform.

A team might be able to successfully win its conference championship without huge outlays on coaching. That was true for Sun Belt champion Appalachian State and Conference USA winner UAB. But getting the elusive and lucrative New Year’s Six spot often requires a higher profile that strong coaching seems to garner.

What we can ultimately take away from last season’s spending on coaching is that such expenditures do matter in the grand scheme. Coaching translates to success at every phase of the game, from recruiting to talent development to in-game action. That is something that will never change under the system as it currently exists.