As you may have come to expect at this point, it pays to be in the Big Ten in more ways than one. Head football coaches in the Big Ten continue to earn some of the highest contracts in the country, with only the SEC coaches collectively pulling higher average salaries. This should be expected given the Big Ten and SEC continue to pull the largest revenue streams from media rights deals and more. And while the world of college football is continuing to open doors for players to benefit from their name and image, coaches of Big Ten football programs are resting comfortably on their own piles of money.
USA TODAY Sports has updated its annual database of football coaching salaries for head coaches and assistants. This is giving us an updated look at how the coaching salaries around the Big Ten compare to each other, with the notable exception of Northwestern interim head coach David Braun. Northwestern’s contract information is not reported.
So, a quick note that needs to be made. This list does include the salary for Mel Tucker, now the former head coach at Michigan State. We won’t dig into the contract situation between Tucker and Michigan State as that is going to be an ongoing discussion for the folks in East Lansing. But it is the contract information currently on record with the USA TODAY Sports database, so we’ll honor that for the time being.
Feel free to remove Tucker’s contract from the mix if so desire, but it is the second-highest contract in the Big Ten as of today. Here is a look at how Big Ten football coaching salaries rank in 2023, according to USA TODAY Sports.