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Steve Sarkisian becomes college football's latest $10 million man

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook02/19/24josephcook89
Steve Sarkisian
Steve Sarkisian (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Steve Sarkisian joined a number of exclusive clubs in the past few months. He joined John Mackovic and Mack Brown as the only Longhorn head coaches to win Big 12 championships. He joined the group of coaches that have made the four-team College Football Playoff. And in recent days, he joined the select few leaders of college football programs known to make over $10 million per year.

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The UT System board of regents are set to approve Sarkisian’s new contract this week, one that will pay him $10.3 million in 2024 and rise by $100,000 every year through the life of the contract. The $10 million threshold is one that only four head coaches are known to eclipse on a yearly basis.

Sarkisian joins Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney as known members of an elite fraternity. The contract makes Sarkisian the highest-paid public employee in the state of Texas.

The large salary stems from Texas’ willingness to reward Sarkisian ahead of its move to the Southeastern Conference along with the opening of the Alabama head coaching job shortly after the 2023 season. Nick Saban, Sarkisian’s mentor, was making over $11 million prior to his retirement.

USC’s Lincoln Riley is rumored to make more than $10 million, but the specific terms of his contract have not been made public due to the University of Southern California’s status as a private institution. Florida State’s Mike Norvell agreed to a new contract with FSU after the season. Yahoo! Sports reported the annual compensation will be over $10 million, but neither an official announcement nor official approval of that figure has been made public. Similar applies with the deal Kalen DeBoer agreed to with Alabama.

Texas is no stranger to large coaching contracts. When Brown’s Longhorns made the BCS National Championship Game in 2009, UT raised his annual salary from $3 million to $5 million. That placed Brown above Saban at the time. Saban’s compensation was then $4.7 million.

The Longhorn athletic department then doled out just over $5 million a year to its head coaches over the next decade. Charlie Strong‘s first and only contract paid him $5 million per season with annual $100,000 increases. Strong only made it through the first three years of his five-year deal. Tom Herman‘s contract was similar in its structure and total, paying the former Ohio State offensive coordinator and Houston head coach just over $5 million per year.

Sarkisian’s first contract was set to pay him $5.8 million in 2024, a small increase from his 2023 salary of $5.6 million. But after the success of 2023, Texas almost doubled his salary and put him into a tier few others occupy.

In addition to his hefty salary, there are a number of incentives common to any modern head coach’s contract that could fill Sarkisian’s pockets even further. Conference titles, CFP appearances, and coach of the year honors are a number of the additional opportunities to add another $1.85 million to Sarkisian’s annual haul.

Several other coaches could join Sarkisian in the coming years, including a handful of SEC rivals. Missouri’s Eliah Drinkwitz, Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, and LSU’s Brian Kelly all make over $9 million but aren’t yet in eight-figure territory..

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For now that’s an echelon Sarkisian resides in along with Day, Smart, and Swinney.

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