Gary Patterson is College Football’s 9th highest-paid coach in 2020

Despite disappointing on-field results the past two full seasons, it’s good to be Gary Patterson.

Wednesday, USA Today reported that TCU’s head coach is the ninth highest-paid college football coach in the country, clocking in at over $6.1 million annually. He is the second highest paid in his conference, trailing only Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley ($6.2 million) amongst the ten Big 12 programs.

Leading the charge once again is multi-time national champion Nick Saban, who pulls in $9,300,000 annually for the Crimson Tide. Five other SEC coaches find themselves among the top ten as well, with Ed Orgeron (just a shade under nine million for reigning champions LSU), Jimbo Fisher’s famous $7.5 million at A&M, Kirby Smart and Gus Malzhan checking in right around $6.9 million and checking in at #6 and #7 overall, and Florida’s Dan Mullen rounding out the top ten and securing the bag at over six million annually. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is third ($8,300,000+), and Jim Harbaugh fourth at eight million plus as well.

You can at least say that the Frogs are getting a good bang for their buck, long term — Patterson is the winningest active coach at the school paying for him, the only two programs in the top 15 salary wise that can make that claim.

Notable in the Big 12 is Tom Herman’s nearly six million dollar salary, the only other coach in the top 20 in the conference. Oklahoma State is getting great value for Mike Gundy, thanks to his recent pay cut, Matt Campbell’s $3,450,000 and Chris Klieman’s $2,300,00 are the best value in the league, while Les Miles’ salary is probably the worst at $3,300,000 or more than one million per win annually.

Several notable coaches took “pandemic reductions”, with Riley and Campbell taking $300,000 + hits. Several of the top ten did not take a single cent reduction. Patterson’s reduction is unknown, as TCU is not required to report as a private institution.