It goes without saying that being a head coach in the Big Ten is a financially rewarding gig if you can get it. With the financial resources available to schools around the Big Ten, the coaches receive some big paydays even for a mediocre job. Every year, USA TODAY updates its database of coaching salaries so fans can see just how much many coaches around the country are being paid, which inevitably leads to debates over which coaches are overpaid and which deserve more?
And then there are the coaches who do not see their salary terms made public. Well, for the most part, that is. Not every school, including Penn State, has decided to make all of the financial details with their head football coach available for public consumption. But that won’t stop us from ranking the Big Ten’s coaching salaries based on what we do know.
So here is a ranking of Big Ten coaching salaries based solely on what the school is scheduled to pay their head coach in 2021. Note that these figures do not take into account any payment reductions as a result of restructuring during a pandemic.