Alabama has the highest-paid assistant coaching staff for the second straight year, according to a study released Tuesday by USA Today.
The 10 on-field Crimson Tide assistants made a combined $8.85 million this year — up from $7,541,277 a year ago. Ohio State was No. 2 in the ranking with its staff making $7.859 million in 2020 while Clemson was third at $7,641,500.
Six of the top 10 assistant coaching salary pools came from the SEC.
Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian also topped the list of the best-paid individual assistant coaches. His $2.5 million salary had him tied with Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele for the top spot, according to USA Today’s database. Sarkisian was the de facto head coach for Alabama when Nick Saban was out with COVID-19 for the Iron Bowl.
Sarkisian was one of three Tide assistants among the top 50 in pay, joined by No. 15 Pete Golding ($1.225 million) and No. 49 Charles Kelly ($800,000).
This year’s database includes a new column for pandemic pay reduction but none of the Alabama coaches took cuts. Texas’ Mike Yurcich had the biggest reduction nationally at $246,250 for a final salary of $1,556,354.
Of the six SEC schools in the top 10 in salary pools, only a few assistants at Tennessee had pandemic-related pay cuts.
See the full database at USA Today’s website.
Ranking salaries by school
- Alabama $8,850,000
- Ohio State $7,859,200
- Clemson $7,641,500
- Texas A&M $7,503,197
- Georgia $7,244,000
- Auburn $6,760,000
- Texas $6,329,999
- Tennessee $6,312,292
- Florida $6,300,000
- Oklahoma $6,283,333
