In many ways, it pays to coach

Three SEC football coaches make more than $3 million per year. Six SEC coaches make more than the highest-paid ACC coach. Those are among the findings of a Journal-Constitution analysis of coaches’ contracts.

SEC FOOTBALL COACHES

Coach, school………………..Base salary….Other compensation….Total

Nick Saban, Alabama…………..$225,000 ……$3,675,000…………$3,900,000

Les Miles, LSU ………………$300,000 ……$3,451,000…………$3,751,000

Urban Meyer, Florida …………$253,238 ……$3,233,800…………$3,487,038

Bobby Petrino, Arkansas……….$154,121 ……$2,695,875…………$2,849,996

Mark Richt, Georgia…………..$378,000 ……$2,422,000…………$2,800,000

Houston Nutt, Ole Miss1……….N/A…………N/A ………………$2,500,000

Lane Kiffin, Tennessee2……….*…………..* ………………..$2,000,000

Steve Spurrier, South Carolina ..$250,000 ……$1,742,500…………$1,992,500

Gene Chizik, Auburn3 …………*…………..* ………………..$1,900,000

Rich Brooks, Kentucky…………$400,000 ……$1,200,000…………$1,600,000

Dan Mullen, Mississippi State4 ..*…………..* ………………..$1,200,000

Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt……..N/A…………N/A ………………N/A

1Ole Miss declined to provide Nutt’s contract, saying it is a “personnel record” exempt from that state’s open records law; Nutt’s listed compensation is from published reports. 2Kiffin’s total compensation is taken from a memorandum of understanding he signed with Tennessee. 3Chizik’s total compensation figure is from published reports. 4Mullen’s total compensation was revealed at a news conference. * Kiffin, Chizik and Mullen —- all hired since the end of last season —- have not signed formal contracts that separate base salary from other compensation.

….N/A - Not available.

….

ACC FOOTBALL COACHES

Coach, school………………..Base salary….Other compensation….Total

Bobby Bowden, Florida State……$235,000 ……$2,200,000…………$2,435,000

Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech ……$325,000 ……$1,975,000…………$2,300,000

Davis, North Carolina…………$315,000 ……$1,787,000…………$2,102,000

Al Groh, Virginia…………….$291,721 ……$1,774,639…………$2,066,360

Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech……$272,328 ……$1,735,672…………$2,008,000

Ralph Friedgen, Maryland1……..N/A…………N/A ………………$1,691,684

David Cutcliffe, Duke2 ……….N/A…………N/A ………………$1,500,000

Jim Grobe, Wake Forest3……….N/A…………N/A ………………$1,326,186

Tom O’Brien, N.C. State……….$240,000 ……$860,000…………..$1,100,000

Dabo Swinney, Clemson4 ……….N/A…………N/A ………………N/A

Frank Spaziani, Boston College ..N/A…………N/A ………………N/A

Randy Shannon, Miami …………N/A…………N/A ………………*

1Friedgen’s total is from a 2006 published report. 2Cutcliffe’s salary is according to a published report. 3Grobe’s compensation is according to Wake Forest’s tax return filed in 2007. 4Swinney hasn’t signed a formal contract yet, and there’s no memorandum of understanding or letter of terms, according to Clemson’s athletics department. *According to published reports, Shannon makes between $800,000 and $1 million annually.

ABOUT THE FIGURES

Salary and compensation figures were, in most cases, calculated from the coaches’ contracts, which were obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution under open records laws. Figures are for the 2009-10 academic year. “Other compensation” includes all guaranteed amounts from sources such as radio/TV shows; shoe, apparel and other endorsement rights; camps (if included in contract); public relations and personal services fees; retention bonuses; and deferred compensation. As private schools, Vanderbilt, Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College and Miami are not subject to open records laws and declined to provide their coaches’ contracts. In those cases, when available, coaches’ salaries were taken from the colleges’ most recent federal tax filings, which list the institutions’ five highest-paid employees.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP BONUSES

Winning the SEC or ACC football championship games can be lucrative for coaches. These coaches’ contracts contain clauses granting them sizeable bonuses if their teams win their conference title games:

SEC

Coach, school………………….Bonus

Rich Brooks, Kentucky…………..$200,000

Steve Spurrier, South Carolina ….$150,000

Nick Saban, Alabama…………….$125,000

Lane Kiffin, Tennessee …………$120,000

Urban Meyer, Florida …………..$75,000

Bobby Petrino, Arkansas…………$75,000

Mark Richt, Georgia…………….$75,000

ACC

Coach, school………………….Bonus

Tom O’Brien, N.C. State1 ……….$300,000

Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech ……..$200,000

Bobby Bowden, Florida State……..$150,000

Al Groh, Virginia2 …………….$100,000

Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech……..$50,000

Butch Davis, North Carolina2 ……$26,250

1O’Brien receives $100,000 for reaching the ACC title game and another $200,000 for winning it. 2Groh and Davis earn their bonuses for reaching the ACC title game; they do not receive bonuses for winning it.

THE FINE PRINT

We found these morsels in SEC and ACC football coaches’ contracts:

SEC

> Alabama coach Nick Saban gets 25 hours of flight time on private airplanes each year for “personal, non-business use.”

> Florida coach Urban Meyer receives $100,000 per year “to assist in educational expenses for his family.”

> In the year following a national championship by LSU, coach Les Miles’ total compensation must be increased so that he will be no less than the third-highest-paid coach in NCAA Division I football. (After LSU won the 2007 national championship, the school found this contract clause difficult to fulfill because exact salaries were not available for coaches at private institutions, such as USC and Notre Dame. So LSU and Miles agreed instead to make him the highest-paid SEC coach in 2008 —- $1 ahead of Alabama’s Saban. In 2009, a $150,000 boost in Saban’s contract nudges him back ahead of Miles as the highest-paid SEC coach. For the moment, at least.)

> Georgia coach Mark Richt cedes authority about scheduling matters to Damon Evans. Richt “shall not unreasonably object to any future opponents identified and approved by the athletic director,” the contract states. “The athletic director shall have the final discretion with respect to scheduling.”

> Richt gets a $150,000 bonus for winning the national championship, Meyer $250,000, Saban $400,000.

> Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino is prohibited from seeking or accepting employment with any other school in the SEC West.

> If Kentucky’s gross ticket revenue for home football games exceeds the prior year’s, coach Rich Brooks receives 10 percent of the increase.

> If Kentucky wins five or six SEC games in a season, Brooks gets a $50,000 bonus for each (the fifth and sixth victory). If Kentucky wins seven or eight SEC games, he gets a $75,000 bonus for each (the seventh and eighth victory).

> Most coaches can receive bonuses based on their players’ academic performance. Richt gets $50,000 if his team finishes in the top one-third of SEC programs in two NCAA measures: academic progress rate (APR) and graduation success rate (GSR).

ACC

> UNC’s Butch Davis will receive $26,250 (1/12th of his salary) when the graduation rate of the football team equals that of the graduation rate of the student body.

> If Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson were to hit every contract incentive in a given year —- two academic incentives and seven related to the team’s on-field performance, culminating in a BCS national title —- he would earn an extra $975,000.

> The size of the raise that Frank Beamer’s assistant coaches at Virginia Tech receive is based on how the team fared, ranging from 5 percent (no bowl game) to 10 percent (BCS national championship game).

> If Beamer reaches the end of the contract (2012), he will receive six indoor club seats at Lane Stadium for life.

> When Bobby Bowden leaves Florida State, unless it is for violating his contract, he will receive a $1 million bonus.