Despite the ever-rising salaries awarded to football coaches, not all of it can be spent on the football staff. But the money must go somewhere and, as the great folks at USA Today have found, much of it is going to coaches in Olympic sports.
In fact, an investigation into 23 sports other than football, men's basketball and women's basketball across Power 5 public schools found those head coaches total compensation packages rose an average of 43 percent from 2013-18.
That number is still behind the 51 percent raises that football coaches netted over that time, but is still well, well ahead of the general public.
In fact, Power 5 softball coaches received 62 percent raises from 2013 to '18, while wrestling coaches' salaries jumped 55 percent and baseball coaches saw their paychecks grow 51 percent.
From the piece:
“Is it a lot of money relative to football and basketball? No, but in many cases it’s four and five times what they were making” just a few years ago, said Chad Chatlos of Ventura Partners, who operates the only major search firm in the college space that frequently handles non-revenue coaching hires. “I’ll work with some ADs who see someone pay a non-revenue coach crazy money and they’ll want to pull their hair out.”
While coaches' salaries have exploded, scholarship spending has not -- at least not at the same rate as the money being paid to adults.
Division I public schools paid out $736 million in scholarship checks in 2005, the first reliable year on record, compared to $721 million in coaches' salaries and $686 million in administrative and support staff salaries.
In 2018, the numbers flipped. Schools paid $1.709 billion in scholarships, $1.723 billion to administrators and support staff and $1.919 billion to coaches. This will come as news to College Sports Inc.'s lobbying arm.
Finally, the paper updated its list of Division I finances.
Texas topped the list with $219 million in total revenue, besting Texas A&M's $212 million.
The top 10:
1. Texas -- $219 million
2. Texas A&M -- $212 million
3. Ohio State -- $206 million
4. Michigan -- $196 million
5. Alabama -- $178 million
6. Georgia -- $177 million
7. Oklahoma -- $175 million
8. Florida State -- $168 million
9. Penn State -- $165 million
10. Florida -- $161 million