Nick Saban, Kirby Smart among seven SEC coaches making $9 million or more

When it comes to paying football coaches, the Southeastern Conference is simply in a league of its own.

Half of the SEC's 14 head football coaches are making a whopping $9 million or more this season, according to USA TODAY Sports' annual review of coaches compensation − which means that seven of the 10 highest-paid public school coaches in the country hail from the SEC.

Some of the names toward the top of the list are plenty familiar, but others are new to the top of the salary chart. Due to a string of extensions and raises, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin and Josh Heupel of Tennessee are each being paid $9 million by their respective schools for the first time. Stoops' pay even puts him ahead of Wildcats men's basketball coach John Calipari − who was the highest-paid coach in his sport last year at $8.5 million.

While it might go without saying, this is the first time that this many football coaches have eclipsed the $9 million mark in a single season − let alone from the same conference. As recently as 2020, there was only one coach in the country making that much.

Who is the highest-paid college football coach?

It's Alabama head coach Nick Saban. And it's not particularly close.

The 71-year-old Saban will pocket a little more than $11.4 million this year, putting him approximately half a million ahead of the second highest-paid coach in the country, Clemson's Dabo Swinney.

Georgia's Kirby Smart is third at roughly $10.71 million, followed by the other two non-SEC coaches in the top 10: Ohio State's Ryan Day ($10.27 million) and Michigan State's Mel Tucker ($10.02 million). (Tucker was fired for cause Sept. 27 but is contesting the university's action.)

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Who are the highest-paid football coaches in the SEC?

Besides Saban and Smart, here are the five other SEC head coaches who are making $9 million or more:

∎ Brian Kelly, LSU: $9,975,000

∎ Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M: $9,150,000

∎ Mark Stoops, Kentucky: $9,013,600

∎ Josh Heupel, Tennessee: $9,000,000

∎ Lane Kiffin, Mississippi: $9,000,000

Five other SEC head coaches are making between $6 million and $8 million, led by Florida's Billy Napier at $7.27 million and first-year Auburn coach Hugh Freeze, who is making $6.5 million.

Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett, who was elevated into the full-time role following the sudden death of Mike Leach late last year, is the conference's lowest-paid coach at $3 million.

How do SEC salaries compare to the rest of the Power Five?

While college football salaries continue to rise across the board, the SEC is in another stratosphere.

The average pay for SEC head football coaches is north of $7.6 million this year − about $866,000 more than the average pay in the Big Ten, which ranks second. Here is the complete list:

1. SEC: $7,611,113

2. Big Ten: $6,744,323

3. Atlantic Coast Conference: $5,179,399

4. Pac-12: $4,767,917

5. Big 12: $4,674,708

The averages, which are based on USA TODAY Sports' published compensation figures for this year, do not include salary figures for private schools whose pay figures are not publicly available.

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Which coaches have the largest buyouts?

This list, which may come as no surprise, is also dominated by the SEC.

USA TODAY Sports calculates buyout figures each year to determine how much a coach would be owed if the school fired him without cause as of December 1 of the current contract year. And as of Dec. 1, 2023, no coach would be owed more in the wake of a firing than Smart, whose contract calls for a buyout north of $92 million.

Fisher, who would be due about $77.6 million if fired by Texas A&M at the end of this year, and Kelly, who would be owed $70 million by LSU, rank second and third on the list, respectively. Fifteen other head coaches, including four in the SEC, have buyouts north of $30 million − though some head coaching contracts stipulate that those buyout payments can be mitigated and/or offset by the coach's pay at a subsequent job.

Follow the reporters on social media @Tom_Schad and @ByBerkowitz.