Cincy on the Prowl
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Cincinnati’s Tommy Tuberville Is The 44th Highest Paid Coach In College Football

By Chris Bains

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In their annual release, USA Today listed the salaries of college football coaches for the 2014 season and ranked them. The Bearcats’ Tommy Tuberville is the 44th highest paid head coach in the country with a $2.2 million annual salary. He’s also earning the most cash of any head coach in the American Athletic Conference.

When you talk about “keeping up with the Joneses” in the college athletics arms race, this list shows that Cincinnati is trying their darnedest to do exactly that despite the shadow of the AAC and their pitiful media and bowl payouts hanging over their head. Among those programs paying their coaches less than Tuberville:

  • Minnesota: Jerry Kill – $2.1 million
  • Stanford: David Shaw – $2 million
  • Oregon: Mark Helfrich – $2 million
  • North Carolina: Larry Fedora – $1.8 million
  • Oregon State: Mike Riley – $1.5 million
  • Notre Dame: Brian Kelly – $1.4 million*

Now, this ranking only includes base salaries without bonuses, to which Tuberville could earn an additional $565,000. And you can bet Mark Helfrich is going to qualify to earn every penny of his $1.1 million bonus, at which point he will have technically made more than Cincinnati’s head coach this year.

Another thing worth mentioning is that coach buyouts are built into the salary numbers. Brian Kelly’s not making $1.4 million* at Notre Dame, that number’s closer to $4 million. But it’s likely the Irish are still writing Cincinnati a multi-million dollar check due to his previous contract’s buyout clause.

Even if you consider those caveats, the USA Today list goes to show you that Cincinnati has the capability of paying coaches like the Power 5 programs and hopefully retain them for longer than three years. Now, if that payout is bolstered a bit (like 35%) by the University as a whole is neither here nor there. The main takeaway is that UC is willing and able to shell out this kind of cash for their coaches, which is encouraging for the stability of the school’s major sports.