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Where Football Coach Compensation, Presidential Pay and R&D Dollars Collide

  
 
 

Only four public universities can claim elite status in all three.

  
 

Texas A&M University at College Station is one of four U.S. public universities to be Top 25 in R&D, presidential compensation and football coach pay.

Photo: Getty Images

When USA Today this week unveiled the Top 25 highest paid football coaches at public universities, I immediately raced to find the Top 25 highest paid public university presidents, a list compiled by the Chronicle for Higher Education in August.

Now, mind you: I didn’t expect those presidential salaries to approach the levels of something as important as matriculating a leather-covered prolate spheroid down an expensively manicured, slightly convex field.

Highest Public University Football Coach Salaries in 2023 (US$M)

1. Nick Saban University of Alabama $11.407
2. Dabo Swinney Clemson University $10.884
3. Kirby Smart University of Georgia $10.705
4. Ryan Day The Ohio State University $10.271
5. Mel Tucker Michigan State University $10.015
6. Brian Kelly Louisiana State University $9.975
7. Jimbo Fisher Texas A&M University $9.15
8. Mark Stoops University of Kentucky $9.013
9. Josh Huepel University of Tennessee $9
(Tie) Lane Kiffin University of Mississippi $9
11. James Franklin Pennsylvania State University $8.5
12. Jim Harbaugh University of Michigan $8.254
13. Luke Fickell University of Wisconsin $7.625
(Tie) Mike Gundy Oklahoma State University $7.625
15. Mike Norvell Florida State University $7.3
16. Billy Napier University of Florida $7.27
17. Brent Venables University of Oklahoma $7.1
18. Kirk Ferentz University of Iowa $7
19. Dan Lanning University of Oregon $6.624
20. Hugh Freeze Auburn University $6.5
(Tie) Bret Bielema University of Illinois $6.5
22. Sam Pittman University of Arkansas $6.357
23. Kyle Whittingham University of Utah $6.325
24. Shane Beamer University of South Carolina $6.125
25. Eliah Drinkwitz University of Missouri $6
(Tie) P.J. Fleck University of Minnesota $6

Source: USA Today, October 3, 2023

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But I did wonder how much overlap or contrast there might be. If both the chief administrator and the sports coach are making top dollar, might that be indicative of broader regional prosperity? What does a high concentration of well-paid coaches or well-paid institutional leaders say about a given state?

Highest Total Pay for Chief Executives at Public Doctoral Universities and Systems in 2022

1. Tedd L. Mitchell Texas Tech University system $2,509,687
2. Eric J. Barron* Pennsylvania State University $2,009,853
3. Joyce Ellen McConnell* Colorado State University at Fort Collins $1,968,350
4. Renu Khator University of Houston $1,663,391
5. Harlan M. Sands* Cleveland State University $1,434,422
6. Michael Ray Williams* University of North Texas System $1,381,655
7. Eli Capilouto University of Kentucky $1,378,407
8. Doug A. Girod University of Kansas $1,356,860
9. Jay C. Hartzell University of Texas at Austin $1,342,718
10. Neeli Bendapudi* Pennsylvania State University $1,254,063
11. Jay A. Perman University System of Maryland $1,237,509
12. Michael M. Crow Arizona State University $1,235,570
13. Ashish K. Vaidya* Northern Kentucky University $1,234,225
14. Kristina M. Johnson The Ohio State University $1,183,188
15. W. Kent Fuchs University of Florida $1,159,958
16. Richard D. McCullough Florida State University $1,147,486
17. James P. Clements Clemson University $1,132,415
18. Ali A. Houshmand Rowan University $1,113,639
19. Ted Carter University of Nebraska system office $1,050,013
20. Samuel L. Stanley Jr.* Michigan State University $1,035,380
21. Brooks A. Keel Augusta University $1,010,154
22. Margaret Katherine Banks Texas A&M University at College Station $987,432
23. James E. Ryan University of Virginia $986,437
24. James B. Milliken University of Texas system $983,218
25. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr.* Purdue University at West Lafayette $976,587

*served less than the full year

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2023

One thing jumps out immediately: While only one coach in the state of Texas — Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M — makes the Top 25 best-remunerated coaches list, four of the Top 10 and six of the Top 25 university presidents can be found in the Lone Star State. That’s the same state that routinely tops Site Selection’s Governor’s Cups rankings for most corporate facility investment projects in a given year, and performs well in other rankings too.

Florida is where you’ll find two of the eight schools who have a football coach and a chief executive in their respective Top 25s by pay:

  • Clemson University
  • Ohio State University
  • Michigan State University
  • Texas A&M University at College Station
  • University of Kentucky
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • Florida State University
  • University of Florida

But as hoops coaching legend Tex Winter and his fictional soccer protégé Ted Lasso would tell you, it’s the triangle offense that works best. What can we triangulate with these two lists? How about top universities by R&D expenditure? Below are the latest available figures for all higher education institutions (public and private). The nine schools that also appear somewhere on one of the above two lists are in bold type.

Top 30 Institutions by FY 2021 R&D Expenditures in All Fields: FYs 2019–21

Institution Rank 2019 2020 2021 % change 2020–21
All institutions - 83,487 86,300 89,723 4.0
Leading 30 institutions - 35,404 36,646 38,126 4.0
Johns Hopkins U.a 1 2,917 3,110 3,181 2.3
U. California, San Francisco 2 1,595 1,651 1,710 3.6
U. Michigan, Ann Arbor 3 1,676 1,674 1,640 -2.0
U. Pennsylvania 4 1,506 1,579 1,632 3.4
U. Washington, Seattle 5 1,426 1,457 1,489 2.2
U. California, Los Angeles 6 1,306 1,393 1,455 4.5
U. California, San Diego 7 1,354 1,404 1,425 1.5
U. Wisconsin-Madison 8 1,297 1,364 1,380 1.2
Stanford U. 9 1,204 1,204 1,274 5.8
Harvard U. 10 1,240 1,240 1,254 1.1
Duke U. 11 1,227 1,197 1,238 3.4
Ohio State U. 12 929 968 1,236 27.7
U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill 13 1,154 1,160 1,206 4.0
Cornell U. 14 1,145 1,190 1,184 -0.5
Yale U. 15 1,072 1,094 1,165 6.5
Texas A&M U., College Station and Health Science Center 16 952 1,131 1,148 1.5
U. Marylandb 17 1,097 1,103 1,142 3.5
U. Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 18 1,081 1,106 1,135 2.6
Texas A&M U., College Station and Health Science Center 19 969 1,051 1,125 7.0
Georgia Institute of Technology 20 960 1,049 1,114 6.2
Columbia U. in the City of New York 21 1,004 1,033 1,099 6.4
U. Minnesota, Twin Cities 22 1,013 1,042 1,073 3.0
New York U. 23 935 947 1,064 12.4
Vanderbilt U. and Vanderbilt U. Medical Center 24 777 947 1,019 23.5
Washington U., Saint Louis 25 887 920 989 7.5
Pennsylvania State U., University Park and Hershey Medical Center 26 950 992 971 -2.1
U. Florida 27 929 942 960 1.9
U. Southern California 28 910 941 956 1.6
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 29 1,009 988 949 -3.9
Northwestern U. 30 857 875 913 4.3

Source: National Science Foundation National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics


Do any schools appear in all three lists? Four institutions make the final squad: The Ohio State University, Texas A&M University at College Station, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Florida. Three of those schools’ states were Top 10 in this year’s Governor’s Cup rankings, with Florida and its 205 projects just outside the line. Among the Top 30 in R&D, The Ohio State University showed the most dramatic increase in spending from 2020 to 2021 at 27.7%.

The two Big Ten schools from Ohio and Pennsylvania are currently ranked No. 4 and No. 6 in the nation in football. They square off October 21st on the gridiron. The research and talent from their institutions square off every day with global competition. — Adam Bruns


The Agostini-DiMauro laboratories in the Physics Department at The Ohio State University are named in part for physics professor emeritus Pierre Agostini, who yesterday won the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside two global colleagues.

Photo courtesy of The Ohio State University

 
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