Where South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer's salary stacks up with the rest of the college football world

This January, South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer signed an extension with USC that keeps him under contract through 2030. The head Gamecock will make over $8 million each year during the life of that contract.

But what does that look like when stacked up next to the rest of the college football world?

According to the annual report from USA Today, Beamer’s 2025 salary ranks No. 20 among college football’s coaching paydays. At $8.15 million in salary, Beamer is ninth in the Southeastern Conference. Georgia’s Kirby Smart ($13.28 million), Texas’ Steve Sarkisian ($10.8 million), Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer ($10.25 million), LSU’s Brian Kelly ($10.175 million), Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin ($9 million), Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz ($9 million), Tennessee’s Josh Heupel ($9 million), and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops ($9 million) all make more than the USC headman. So does Clemson’s Dabo Swinney ($11.447 million).

For additional comparison, the lowest SEC head coaching salary belongs to Clark Lea at Vanderbilt. However, his $3.71 million salary is not an official number, as Vanderbilt is a private institution that does not share all of its financials. Other than Lea and Mississippi State’s Jeff Lebby, every SEC coach will make at least $6.5 million this fall.

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Beamer has natural escalators in his current contract, but those will not cause his yearly check to jump ahead of those currently positioned above him in the SEC. However, pending the more minute details of other coaching deals (and, of course, any other hirings, firings, or extensions), he could move as high as the top 15 nationally over the next several years.

The final year of Shane Beamer’s South Carolina contract includes an $8.65 million base salary.

It is also worth noting that USA Today’s research efforts were unable to find accurate salary information for some coaches. However, none of their contracts likely approach Beamer’s annual salary.

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