College football's 10 highest-paid coaches after Deion Sanders deal

The market for college football’s elite head coaches underwent another major change after Colorado gave Deion Sanders a lucrative new contract extension that redrew the borders around the 10 highest-paid coaches in the sport entering the 2025 season.

Coach Prime joined a very elite fraternity as a result, becoming one of the few head coaches to eclipse the $10 million per year mark when it comes to salary after getting a raise from the Buffs.

Here’s an overview of the 10 highest-paid head coaches in college football coming into the 2025 season after news of Deion Sanders’ extension at Colorado, according to the USA Today database.

Ranking college football’s 10 highest-paid head coaches in 2025

10. Brian Kelly, LSU

What he’s paid: $9,975,000

Wanting to stay a contender in the SEC and nationally, LSU brought in Kelly from Notre Dame with a huge offer worth more than $100 million in total money.

And while he won 10 games in each of his first seasons, Kelly stumbled to 9-4 last fall and just lost top overall recruit Bryce Underwood when the quarterback flipped to Michigan.

T-8. Deion Sanders, Colorado

What he’s paid: $10 million

Two years into the Coach Prime experiment at Colorado, and Sanders is already cashing in on a landmark extension after a markedly-improved 9-4 outing in 2024 that saw the Buffaloes in the Big 12 title picture late in the season.

Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter are out of the picture, so we'll see how well the coach adjusts his roster, and the team's position in 2025 and beyond, but right now, it's enough for Colorado to lock him in as the man to lead this program back to prominence.

Sanders will make $10 million in 2025, but his contract average of $10.8 million per year could technically put him in No. 4 on this list. He's set to make $11 million in 2027-28 and $12 million in 2029.

T-8. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

What he’s paid: $10 million

Maybe no single position comes with more pressure, as DeBoer succeeded 7-time national champion Nick Saban, regarded as the best coach in college football history.

There were certainly ups and downs in his first season, including losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee, for the school’s first 3-loss regular season since 2010 and no playoff appearance.

T-8. Mike Norvell, Florida State

What he’s paid: $10 million

Coming off that undefeated ACC championship season, Norvell inked a deal with the Seminoles for eight years, but the school might be regretting that payout after this past season.

Florida State had its worst outing in the last 50 years, finishing just 2-10, leaving some big questions as to whether Norvell can crawl out of that hole and justify that big contract.

T-8. Bill Belichick, North Carolina

What he’s paid: $10 million

Belichick made the biggest splash of the 2025 college football offseason, and arguably all time, after the 6-time Super Bowl champion made a deal to lead the Tar Heels football program.

That means Belichick will make double what Mack Brown did last season in the same position, a big investment for a coach with the most proven track record you can have, but who’s about to undergo a big culture change.

6. Lincoln Riley, USC

What he’s paid: $10,043,418

Although it’s getting to the point where USC could be asking itself internally if Riley is worth all that money, given how he’s underperformed, sitting just 25-14 after three years.

A loss to Utah in the Pac-12 title game in Riley’s first season knocked his Trojans out of the College Football Playoff, revealing just how bad his defense was, and things haven’t improved, as Riley went just 6-6 in 2024.

5. Steve Sarkisian, Texas

What he’s paid: $10,600,000

Conversely, the Longhorns are more than happy with the direction of their program under Sarkisian’s leadership, going to the College Football Playoff in two straight years.

And his team has fared remarkably well during his first year in the SEC, playing for the conference championship, and getting as far as the CFP semifinal round.

4. Dan Lanning, Oregon

What he's paid: $11 million

One of college football's most accomplished young coaches, Lanning has led the Ducks to a 35-6 overall record in three seasons, culminating in an undefeated run in conference play in 2024 and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

That is enough for Oregon to make a new investment in its head coach, amounting to a raise of about $2 million per year that keeps him in Eugene through the 2030 season.

3. Dabo Swinney, Clemson

What he’s paid: $11,132,775

Swinney signed a deal in 2022 that will keep him at Clemson through the 2031 season, a school where he’s won two College Football Playoff national championships.

The team has fallen short of that standard over the last few years, although it went back to the playoff in 2024 after not qualifying since the 2020 season.

2. Ryan Day, Ohio State

What he’s paid: $12,500,000

Ohio State announced a new contract for Day that extends the head coach through the 2031 season, adding three years to his current agreement, a signature vote of confidence in him following the Buckeyes’ historic national championship run.

Winning the title remains college football’s biggest prize, but the Ohio State faithful want to see Day perform a little better against rival Michigan after he lost the last four straight games in the series against The Team Up North.

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia

What he’s paid: $13,282,580

Georgia’s two-time national champion surpassed Swinney this year in the salary department after signing a two-year extension this spring that runs through 2033.

Smart is 105-18 in nine years at his alma mater and fresh off winning another SEC championship, is in position once again to make a run at the national title.

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