Money from college football flows to coaches, players and schools

Matt Hayes
| USA TODAY NETWORK

Let me introduce you to the beautiful, symphonic game of college football at Get Yours.

Money comes in, money goes out. And all that green has to land somewhere.

Coaches and players, conferences and universities.

Agents and advisors, middlemen and parents (of course they still get what is theirs).

A friendly circle of feasting while you can and as much as you can. For as long as you can.

But rather than point to the bogeyman of player empowerment and coaching greed as the reason college football has come so drastically over the past three years, let’s not stray too far from the obvious.

Financial stupidity.

Or as Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts told me in May, “We don’t have a revenue problem in college sports. We have a budget problem.”

Here we feature Appalachian State coach Shawn Clark, a beloved alumnus and a tough, tenacious offensive lineman in the 1990s. A two-time All-American long before NIL and shared television revenues went from unthinkable to standard.

Clark boasts a 36-18 coaching record since 2020. That’s a solid resume for a Bowl Subdivision coach.

His team plays a Power Five conference team every year, and this Saturday they travel to Clemson to play a team that is still in shock at the thought of anything Georgia-related.

“It’s a big task for us,” Clark said during his weekly news conference. “We have to play close to perfection.”

Here’s one more thing: Clark will get $20,000 just for showing up.

Because deep in the legal jargon of Clark’s contract is a jar of candy — and it’s a sugar rush to hit those thresholds, to earn that money. Or in this case, to just show up and get 20 stacks.

That’s right, every game against a Power Five conference team — guaranteed games with seven-figure paydays that keep athletic departments afloat — is easy money for Clark.

But he’s not alone and he’s on the low end to get yours. How low, you ask?

Enter Lane Kiffin, the elite coach who transformed Ole Miss from irrelevance to College Football Playoff contender in just four years. Last year, the Rebels won 11 games for the first time in school history.

If anyone deserves to be paid, it’s Kiffin.

Ole Miss opened the season by scoring 12,000 points last weekend against FCS foe Furman and is one of a handful of true national championship favorites. Kiffin is also — potentially — in line for the largest single-season payday in college coaching history, having met every benchmark in his newly restructured contract.

If Ole Miss wins the national title this season, Kiffin will hit every benchmark in his contract and earn an additional $4.25 million. I’m no mathematician, but a $9 million annual salary on top of a $4.25 million national title bonus is money history.

Unless Georgia coach (insert: Clemson shudder) Kirby Smart – he of the $13 million-a-year contract – hits his bonus-pool benchmarks. At that point, it’s safe to say we’ve reached peak stupidity.

BOWL PROJECTIONS: Big changes to College Football Playoff after Week 1

CALM DOWN: The 5 Biggest Overreactions from Week 1 of the Season

That $13 million-plus is NFL-level pay and more than any coach has ever made in a single season (sorry, Jimbo, I don’t count you or any other coach who makes big bucks).

These performance-enhanced contracts have been around for decades, but the numbers and incentives keep growing. Don’t blame Smart, Kiffin or super-agent Jimmy Sexton for raking in every penny they can.

If universities are going to pay hundreds of millions in ever-expanding media deals, why shouldn’t coaches take it? If players are going to move from team to team and make millions doing so, why shouldn’t they take it?

Louisville, when it poached hometown hero Jeff Brohm from Purdue after the 2022 season, had an incentive clause that added two years and $14 million to Brohm’s contract if he won 10 games. And wouldn’t you know it, Brohm took a program that was suddenly dying last year and won 10 games in his first season. Then he added $14 million to his original contract.

Again, if universities are giving away money, why not take it?

So the next time you hear a coach complaining about NIL, or revenue sharing, or declaring that the current NIL system is “unsustainable” — it’s not; in fact, it’s growing — don’t be fooled. That’s just code for saying we’re not the reason college football isn’t what it used to be, it’s the players.

Which, of course, is completely ridiculous.

Players earn money and move from team to team. Some develop, and some learn hard life lessons – just like, you know, Trainers.

Some players get a few million for a State U quarterback, and some coaches get half a million to run a MAC school. It all depends on the market demand and what each is willing to pay.

The land of freedom and a home where you can claim what is yours.

Last year, amid the most controversial Finals series in decades, then-Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh invoked performance-based bonuses despite being suspended for six games in connection with two separate NCAA investigations.

At the end of the season, when the Wolverines won their first national title since 1997 and Harbaugh did what he promised, he earned an additional $3 million in bonuses. That raised his annual salary to $11.2 million — for winning nine games as Michigan’s head coach.

Hey, all that green has to go somewhere.

Why not straight to the land of financial stupidity?

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on X on MattHayesCFB.

Money from college football flows to coaches, players and schools

By meerna

You Missed

Columbus Clippers Use 5-Point 7th Round to Defeat Durham Bulls

Seattle Mariners player goes viral for incredible photo on Friday night

Person shot, seriously injured in downtown Indianapolis

Key Jaguars defender to miss Sunday’s game

Money from college football flows to coaches, players and schools

By meerna

Related Post

Columbus Clippers Use 5-Point 7th Round to Defeat Durham Bulls

Seattle Mariners player goes viral for incredible photo on Friday night

Person shot, seriously injured in downtown Indianapolis

You Missed

Columbus Clippers Use 5-Point 7th Round to Defeat Durham Bulls

Seattle Mariners player goes viral for incredible photo on Friday night

Person shot, seriously injured in downtown Indianapolis

Key Jaguars defender to miss Sunday’s game