Ed Orgeron leads way as college football head coaches rake in $11.4M in bonuses this season
With the College Football Playoff championship trophy awarded and the final polls compiled, head coaches at FBS public schools have ended up with more than $11.4 million in bonuses from their teams’ on-field performances.
LSU’s Ed Orgeron, whose Tigers defeated Clemson for the CFP title, totaled $1.775 million. That is not only the top total for this season by $600,000, it also is the greatest single-season total in the six years USA TODAY Sports has been tracking these incentives. And Orgeron has another $200,000 based on team academic performance that he could get.
Four other coaches finished with at least $600,000 in bonuses: Oregon’s Mario Cristobal ($1.175 million), Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz ($775,000), Utah’s Kyle Whittingham ($621,667) and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney ($600,000).
Meanwhile, millions more went to assistant coaches, strength coaches, and — at some schools — to athletics directors and a range of team staffers. For example, Ohio State’s 10 assistant coaches and its strength coach will get a combined total of just over $2.7 million for the Buckeyes winning the Big Ten title and playing in the CFP semifinals.
In addition, a handful of head coaches reached benchmarks that trigger future considerations from their schools for themselves and/or their assistants. Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, Boise State’s Bryan Harsin and Louisiana Tech’s Skip Holtz picked up one-year contract extensions based on their team’s win totals.
And under Ferentz’s contract, the combination of Iowa’s final ranking in the Associated Press media poll, win total, bowl appearance and NCAA Graduation Success Rate will mean the Hawkeyes’ assistant coaches and strength coach will get pay increases for next season averaging at least 12%.
