According to the USA TODAY coaches salary database, the Oklahoma duo of Mike Gundy and Brent Venables are the highest-paid coaches in the conference. Not at all surprising for the former since he has been in place with the Cowboys since 2005. Venables became a head coach for the first time in 2022 and his first season didn’t go well.
The database doesn’t have any salary information for BYU and TCU since they are private universities. There is a salary number for Dave Aranda but USA TODAY was unable to find a buyout number due to Baylor also being a private university.
Venables is not only among the highest-paid coaches in the conference, he also has the largest buyout. That figure is just ahead of Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman, who signed a new contract this offseason after leading the Wildcats to a Big 12 title in 2022.
Check out the full listing for Big 12 head coaches.
| Head Coach | School | FBS Rank | Salary (millions) | Buyout (millions) |
| Mike Gundy | Oklahoma St. | 14 | $7.6 | $24.9 |
| Brent Venables | Oklahoma | 17 | $7.1 | $30.6 |
| Lance Leipold | Kansas | 29 | $5.8 | $27.3 |
| Steve Sarkisian | Texas | 30 | $5.6 | $12.9 |
| Chris Klieman | Kansas St. | 38 | $4.8 | $29.6 |
| Dana Holgorsen | Houston | 41 | $4.3 | $14.8 |
| Joey McGuire | Texas Tech | 45 | $4.1 | $15.9 |
| Matt Campbell | Iowa St. | 47 | $4.0 | $15.3 |
| Neal Brown | West Virginia | 48 | $4.0 | $13.3 |
| Scott Satterfield | Cincinnati | 53 | $3.5 | $19.3 |
| Dave Aranda | Baylor | 57 | $3.0 | – |
| Gus Malzahn | UCF | 66 | $2.3 | $3.6 |
| Kalani Sitake | BYU | – | – | – |
| Sonny Dykes | TCU | – | – | – |
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