Who Is More Valuable—A Football Coach, a College President, or a Full Time Professor?

If value correlates with salary, then football coaches definitely outweigh faculty and college executives in terms of relative importance in the postsecondary job market. College football coaches are paid far more than full time professors. In fact, the most successful coaches are paid substantially more than the college presidents to whom they report.

Without debating fairness or wringing hands over priority-setting among postsecondary institutions, here are the facts:

Rank	Institution	Average FT Faculty Salaries*	Institution	Football Coach Salary** (FT Faculty Average)*
1	Harvard	$135,564	Texas	$5,100,000 ($87,822)
2	Caltech	$132,203	USC	$4,400,000 ($99,593)
3	Penn	$129,633	Oklahoma	$4,300,000 ($74,985)
4	Princeton	$127,018	Alabama	$3,900,000 ($77,861)
5	Yale	$116,817	LSU	$3,800,000 ($72,740)
6	U of Chicago	$115,963	Ohio State	$3,500,000 ($88,974)
7	Columbia	$112,879	Iowa	$3,030,000 ($85,300)
8	MIT	$111,151	Arkansas	$2,900,000 ($72,550)
9	Emory	$109,401	Georgia	$2,900,000 ($80,086)
10	Babson	$109,180	Michigan	$2,500,000 ($93,667)

*Ranked from data provided by StateUniversity.com excluding professional schools
** USA TODAY and Americasbestonline.net

According to USA TODAY, 56 college coaches make over $1 million per year, and 25 make more than $2 million. In fact, the average head coach in the NCAA’s top-level, 120-school Football Bowl Subdivision makes $1.36 million. At the next level, 66 assistant coaches make $300,000 or more, with the University of Tennessee topping the list by paying nine assistants an average of more than $369,000.

Contrast these figures with numbers on the academic side. The average full time professor at a private research university earns $115,000. Public universities pay even less. At the University of Tennessee, where they are so generous with assistant football coaches, the average full time faculty member earns $72,532 (number 447 on the top 500 list).

Even the boss usually makes less than the football coach. Although 23 private college presidents now make over $1 million, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that average pay package for presidents at private research universities currently stands at $627,750. The latest numbers available for public research universities puts average pay for presidents at about $427,400. Presumably season tickets are included in the package.

Local entries in the top 100 college football coach salary contest include Virginia Tech ($2.1 million), UVA ($1.87 million), UMD ($1.75 million), and Navy ($750,000). Faculty salaries are ordered differently with the Naval Academy ($108,940) paying the most, followed by UVA ($98,964), UMD ($94,181), and Virginia Tech ($84,111).