MADISON- After Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy was found to be overpaid by $1 million from an internal review board, I wanted to see how much Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst is paid, and how that compared to coaches with similar success in the Big Ten.
Luckily for me this research was made easy by USA Today, who had created a spreadsheet that lists all of the division one head coaches from highest paid to least. The highest paid coach on that list for 2019 was not surprisingly Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney who made $9.3 million, while Alabama’s Nick Saban finished second with $8.85 million.
Paul Chryst falls to number 25 on this list behind former Michigan State head coach Mike Dantonio in 24th, and ahead of Baylor head coach Matt Rhule in 26th. Chryst made $4.15 million last season, which will rise this year as he was given a $300,000 raise because of his excellent results in his tenure at Wisconsin. This raise is well deserved as the Badgers head coach had his fourth 10-win season last year out of his five seasons at Wisconsin.
Paul Chryst has turned this program completely around from the sad state that Gary Anderson left it in, and Chryst should be paid like the top five coach that his results have shown him to be. In fact, the only head coaches paid less than Chryst in the Big Ten are at Minnesota, Rutgers, Indiana, and Illinois. The only Big Ten team with greater success in the last few seasons, Ohio State, paid their new coach Ryan Day $4.5 million in 2019. Wisconsin football is starting to become a powerhouse program in the FBS, finishing consistently within the top 10 teams every season, and the Wisconsin coaching staff should be paid as such.
Do you think that Paul Chryst should be paid more? Should college coaches be paid less? Let me know in the comments below.