Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is currently the highest-paid college football coach. A record-setting raise prior to the start of the 2024 season upped his salary to approximately $13.3 million.
That number doesn’t include performance bonuses.
It was not so long ago that top college football coaches made $2 or $3 million. But the era of big money has come for college athletics, and it’s made dozens of college football coaches very rich, indeed.
Below are the top salaries for college football coaches, according to information researched and released by USA Today and other sources.
Highest Paid College Football Coaches 2025
| Rank | Coach | School | Salary |
| 1 | Kirby Smart | Georgia | $13.28 Million |
| 2 | Ryan Day | Ohio State | $12.5 Million |
| 3 | Dabo Swinney | Clemson | $11.13 Million |
| 4 | Dan Lanning | Oregon | $10.9 Million |
| 5 | Deion Sanders | Colorado | $10.8 Million |
| 6 | Steve Sarkisian | Texas | $10.6 Million |
| 7 | Lincoln Riley | USC | $10(ish) Million |
| T-8 | Kalen DeBoer | Alabama | $10 Million |
| T-8 | Mike Norvell | Florida State | $10 Million |
| T-8 | Bill Belichick | North Carolina | $10 Million |
| 11 | Brian Kelly | LSU | $9.98 Million |
| 12 | Mark Stoops | Kentucky | $9.01 Million |
| T-13 | Lane Kiffin | Ole Miss | $9 Million |
| T-13 | Eli Drinkwitz | Missouri | $9 Million |
| T-13 | Josh Heupel | Tennessee | $9 Million |
| 16 | James Franklin | Penn State | $8.5 Million |
| 17 | Brent Venables | Oklahoma | $8.15 Million |
| 18 | Mario Cristobal | Miami (FL) | $7.78 Million |
| 19 | Mike Gundy | Oklahoma State | $7.75 Million |
| 20 | Luke Fickell | Wisconsin | $7.73 Million |
Lincoln Riley Salary
Lincoln Riley is thought to make about $10 million annually as the head coach of USC.
Unlike many of the other top-paid college football coaches, who work for public universities, Riley works at a private school. That means USC is not required to comply with public disclosure laws that often reveal NCAA coaching salaries.
Unless USC or Riley himself elects to volunteer the details of his salary, college football fans are unlikely to ever know the exact figure he is paid.
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