College Football and Basketball Coaches are Significantly Overpaid
By Joel D. Joseph
College football and basketball games are exciting to watch, but their coaches are significantly overpaid. The top football coach earns $13 million a year plus bonuses, while the top basketball coach earns $8.9 million plus bonuses. The top 125 football coaches in the United States earn a combined $220,000,000, an average of $1.76 million or about $150,000 per month.
Most of the top schools with football and basketball teams are public universities. Based on the most recent data from official salary disclosures and IRS filings, most public university presidents earn between $700,000 and $1.8 million annually, while private university presidents typically earn between $1 million and $5 million.
Should a football coach earn five to ten times more than their university president earns? I think not. University presidents have more education and responsibility than football and basketball coaches. Most of these institutions are public universities subsidized by taxpayers.
The average college professor in the United States earns about $100,000 per year. University presidents' salaries, according to admissionsight.com, top out at $5 million for Columbia University. The top seven paid university presidents are all at private universities. The seventh ranking college president is paid $2.5 million. Public university presidents make considerably less.
How to Regulate Coaches' Salaries
There are two ways to rein in coaches salaries: states can limit salaries of coaches at state universities and Congress can regulate salaries at all universities. Since states pay the salaries for state university coaches, the states can limit their pay. I suggest a pay cap of $1 million per year. Certainly coaches can live on that generous amount.
Congress can step in by using its power of the purse. Congress controls federal funding to public and private univerities. Nearly every university in the United States receives federal funding. For example, the University of Colorado receives more money from the federal government than from the state of Colorado. According to the University of Colorado, it received $468 million in federal grants in 2023. At the same time, the University received $36 million from the state of Colorado. So, as a condition of receiving federal grants, the state of Colorado could limit salary of its coaches one million dollars per year or less.
What Would the Coaches Do?
Some coaches might want to leave college coaching and go to the National Football League or the National Basketball Association. But these opportunities at the professional level are extremely limited. A few coaches may go into broadcasting, but those jobs are also very limited. Most coaches would stay put. Most coaches also love what they do and would probably work for much less. Some coaches could run for the United States Senate like Tommy Tuberville. Tuberville made $2.5 million as a football coach at Auburn University. Now he earns just $174,000 as a United States Senator.
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