Ohio State Chris Ash

Co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash earned $195,000 from Ohio State's postseason run.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS -- Winning has a price. For Ohio State football, it was nearly $2 million.

The Buckeyes National Championship win over Oregon on Jan. 12 resulted in nearly $2 million in bonuses for the football staff and athletic director Gene Smith. Actually, it wasn't winning the title that put the coaches into their maximum bonus range, it was just getting there.

From head coach Urban Meyer's $250,000 bonus for the title, down to the $42,509 for receivers coach Zach Smith, all the football coaches and strength coach Mickey Marotti, who is paid like a top assistant, had typical bonuses in their contract.

This information was obtained by reviewing the most updated contracts for football staffers made available by Ohio State.

• Playing for a title meant Meyer received a straight $250,000 in addition to his more than $4.6 million contract. He would have received $150,000 for making one of the four playoff bowls outside the four-team playoff or $200,000 for Ohio State losing in the semifinals. The $250,000 kicked in for making the National Championship, though winning didn't bring any greater bonus.

• Gene Smith received $108,517 in bonuses, which is six weeks of his base pay of $940,484. Smith got four weeks of that for the Buckeyes reaching a major playoff bowl and an additional two weeks for the Buckeyes winning the National Championship.

Head coach Urban Meyer (left) and co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell (right) each earned bonuses for the Buckeyes' postseason success.

• Each of the nine assistants, as well as Marotti, had a clause added to their contracts in August. The new playoff that began this season forced a contract rephrasing, but the bonuses were also increased. Previously, the assistants maxed out at a two-month bonus if the Buckeyes made a BCS bowl or the National Championship.

Now, each received a bonus of three months salary for the Buckeyes making the College Football Playoff National Championship. Winning the title didn't add anything more. Losing in the semifinals to Alabama would have resulted in a bonus of two-and-a-half months salary. If the Buckeyes had missed the four-team playoff but made another playoff bowl, the bonus would have been two months salary.

• Given the current salaries stated in their contracts, here is what the three months salary bonus equaled for each coach:

- Co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell: $150,000

- Co-offensive coordinator Tom Herman: $137,500

- Co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash: $130,000

- Co-offensive coordinator Ed Warinner: $100,009

- Defensive line coach Larry Johnson: $100,000

- Strength coach Mickey Marotti: $96,500

- Secondary coach Kerry Coombs: $75,000

- Running backs coach Stan Drayton: $73,750

- Tight ends coach Tim Hinton: $71,501

- Receivers coach Zach Smith: $42,509

• That's $976,769 in championship bonuses for the nine assistants plus Marotti. Add in $250,000 for Meyer and $108,517 for Smith and the total is more than $1.3 million. (Herman is now the head coach at Houston, but this was the structure of his OSU deal.)

• But each assistant also received a bonus of a month-and-a-half salary for the Buckeyes winning the Big Ten Championship. That was one month salary for winning the East Division and another half month for beating Wisconsin in Indianapolis. The coaches received that in addition to the separate three-month salary championship bonus.

That's another $488,385 in assistant bonuses. And Meyer received another $150,000 - $50,000 for making the Big Ten Championship and $100,000 for winning it.

Smith also received another two weeks bonus, or $36,172, for the Buckeyes winning the Big Ten. But Smith's yearly bonus package maxes out at $120,000. So consider his maximum bonus for football achievements to end there.

• Here are the final bonus numbers from the Buckeyes' football success, with the assistants in the end earning a total bonus of four-and-a-half months salary.

- Urban Meyer: $400,000

- Luke Fickell: $225,000

- Tom Herman: $206,250

- Chris Ash: $195,000

- Ed Warinner: $150,014

- Larry Johnson:$150,000

- Mickey Marotti: $144,750

- Gene Smith: $120,000

- Kerry Coombs: $112,500

- Stan Drayton: $110,625

- Tim Hinton: $107,252

- Zach Smith: $63,764

• The final bonus total for the Buckeyes' football postseason success?

$1,985,155.