Picking college football’s best head coaching jobs by conference
By John Scimeca
Big 12: Oklahoma
For the Big 12’s best coaching job, you could consider Oklahoma State, where the salary is high ($5.125 million or 13th-highest in the country) and the standards are ho-hum (15-11 the past two seasons). Baylor deserves mention, too, as a dynamic up-and-comer, and Texas has seemingly infinite resources to notoriously pursue mediocrity.
No Big 12 program wins like Oklahoma — the Sooners have won the last five conference titles in a row and have won 13 of the past 20 conference crowns. Lincoln Riley makes more than $6 million per annum and has nearly that much to dole out to his assistants. The Sooners, too, are a nationwide brand among high school recruits, far beyond the metro areas of Texas and the small towns of the Great Plains.
Sooner fans demand national title contention (though they haven’t won since 2000) in the age of college football playoff, but there’s no other Big 12 program positioned to do so like Oklahoma.