The 12-team College Football Playoff field features the nation’s highest-paid coach, highest-paid staff, biggest gameday budget and richest program.
And all four are different schools.
Those are among the takeaways from a look at the available financials of every team in the expanded field. The numbers come with caveats, especially with private schools like Notre Dame and SMU. Programs use different accounting methods, and the totals fluctuate annually. And conference realignment has an ongoing impact on budgets — especially for the four schools that changed leagues this year (Texas, SMU, Arizona State and Oregon).
But the data still allows for some broad comparisons. Here are some of the details and notable findings:
*Note: Coaching figures come from USA Today’s database for the 2024 season. The rest are what schools reported to the U.S. Department of Education for the 2022-23 year (the most recent available).
Texas, Georgia at the top
The Longhorns brought in the most football revenue in the nation in 2022-23: more than $180.6 million. That’s more than twice the reported revenue of Texas’ first-round opponent, Clemson ($74.1 million), and seven times more than what Boise State — which ranked 72nd — brought in ($24 million).
Georgia was second nationally ($152.7 million), and half the Playoff field ranked in the top 11.
Biggest spenders
None of the three football programs with the highest total expenses (Alabama, Florida State or Miami) made the field. No. 4 did: Ohio State at $72.4 million. The next team, Notre Dame, also qualified. Seven of the 12 Playoff participants were in the top 21.
Again, Boise State was last among Playoff teams, ranking 79th at $17.1 million.
Operating (gameday) expenses were slightly different. Notre Dame reported more costs than any other program ($21.9 million). That’s $3.5 million more than the nation’s No. 2 program, Penn State.
Coaching paydays
| Rk | Coach | School | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Kirby Smart
|
 Georgia |
$13.3 million
|
|
2
|
Dabo Swinney
|
 Clemson |
$11.1 million
|
|
3
|
Steve Sarkisian
|
 Texas |
$10.6 million
|
|
5
|
Ryan Day
|
 Ohio State |
$10 million
|
|
10
|
Josh Heupel
|
 Tennessee |
$9 million
|
|
13
|
James Franklin
|
 Penn State |
$8.5 million
|
|
14
|
Dan Lanning
|
 Oregon |
$8.2 million
|
|
28
|
Marcus Freeman
|
 Notre Dame |
$6.7 million
|
|
49
|
Curt Cignetti
|
 Indiana |
$4.25 million
|
|
56
|
Kenny Dillingham
|
 Arizona State |
$3.95 million
|
|
66
|
Rhett Lashlee
|
 SMU |
$2.36 million
|
|
81
|
Spencer Danielson
|
 Boise State |
$1.135 million
|
All salaries via the USA Today database
This set of numbers is great for agents but not for athletic directors. The three highest-paid coaches all made the field: Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Texas’ Steve Sarkisian. So did Ohio State’s Ryan Day (No. 5). Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, Penn State’s James Franklin and Oregon’s Dan Lanning were all in the top 14. Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman lags behind this year, but he’s about to join them.
Smart’s salary ($13.3 million) is more than listed compensation for the head coaches and every on-field assistant at Boise State and Arizona State combined ($13.1 million)
The you-get-what-you-pay-for idea has its limits. Three of the seven coaches who make at least $10 million failed to make the field. Sorry, USC (Lincoln Riley), Florida State (Mike Norvell) and Alabama (Kalen DeBoer).
On the other side, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti ($4.25 million) and Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham ($3.95 million) had the third-smallest salaries in their conferences (the Big Ten and Big 12). Boise State’s Spencer Danielson was sixth in the Mountain West, and Rhett Lashlee’s reported income at SMU (almost $2.4 million) was last among the 13 ACC salaries in USA Today’s database.
Ohio State’s $11.4 million pool for assistants is the largest known figure in the nation. Georgia ($10.3 million) and Clemson ($9.675 million) were second and third.
Underdog Broncos
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Boise State’s budget is the smallest in the field; that would be true for almost every Group of 5 program. But the numbers are still striking.
At least 18 assistants in the Playoff make more than Danielson. The number is likely higher, but assistants’ salaries are not available for Notre Dame, Penn State and SMU.
Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles makes the most at $2.2 million — almost twice Danielson’s salary. Divide Smart’s salary evenly across the year, and he makes nearly as much in a month ($1.1 million) as Danielson earns in a year.
Notre Dame ($21.9 million) and Penn State ($18.4 million) both reported more in operating expenses than Boise State spent on its entire football program ($17.1 million). At least four schools had coaching salary pools that exceeded Boise State’s budget: Georgia, Texas, Ohio State and Clemson.
Seven of the participating programs reported a larger surplus — total revenue minus total expenses — than the Broncos made, period ($24.0 million). Texas’ surplus ($121.9 million) is five times Boise State’s revenue.
How does conference realignment affect the bottom lines?
These figures don’t include the financials of the first years with Texas in the SEC, Oregon in the Big Ten, SMU in the ACC and Arizona State in the Big 12. But we can fill in some gaps. Oregon is set to receive about $30 million from the Big Ten as a new member. That’s about half the payouts for Big Ten incumbents like Ohio State and Penn State. SMU gave up nine years of TV money from the ACC to move up from the American Athletic Conference.
Relatively new TV contracts for the Big Ten and SEC have led to concerns that those two conferences will separate themselves more from the Big 12 and ACC. Big Ten per-school payouts are expected to exceed $80 million. The SEC paid its members more than $51 million each during the 2022-23 fiscal year before starting a 10-year, $3 billion contract with ESPN.
As part of its ongoing litigation against the ACC, Florida State projected its conference’s payouts would be about half of those from the Big Ten and SEC. Current members from those two leagues made up 19 of the top 21 schools in football revenue in 2022-23. The exceptions were No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 16 Florida State.
What about NIL?
The added layer in any conversation about money in the College Football Playoff is how much is being spent on teams’ rosters now that name, image and likeness payments are legal. Though Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork has gone on record saying Buckeyes players are earning about $20 million, most schools’ NIL collective numbers are hard to come by. What can be found?
The Athletic’s David Ubben explored the topic on Tuesday. Read more here.
(Top photos: Eakin Howard, Justin Ford / Getty Images)
