College football assistants seeing salaries surge

Steve Berkowitz and Jodi Upton | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption USA NOW Sports: College football coaches continue to see salary explosion USA TODAY's Steve Berkowitz talks about his findings on the rise of college football coaching salaries.

Assistants average almost $200,000 per year in salary

In the past three years, pay has increased almost 30%

Eighteen assistants will make at least $600,000

The average major-college football assistant coach now earns roughly $200,000, a USA TODAY Sports analysis finds.

That means NCAA Bowl Subdivision assistant coaches joined their bosses in seeing their compensation for the 2012 season increase by more than 10% over last season. Head coaches' pay went up a little faster than assistants' in the past year. But since USA TODAY Sports began surveying assistant coaches' compensation in 2009, assistants are making about 29% more and head coaches about 21% more.

Southern California defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin leads the new assistant coach survey at more than $1.5 million, but that is what he received during the 2010 calendar year, which is the most recent period for which private school data are available. Kiffin has said he will depart USC after this season.

That likely will make Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris the nation's highest-paid assistant. He is second to Kiffin and tops among public-school assistants at $1.3 million.

Morris is making more than half of the FBS head coaches this season. He also is making more than 41 entire assistant-coaching staffs.

The next four highest-paid assistants are defensive coordinators from Southeastern Conference schools: Alabama's Kirby Smart ($950,000), LSU's John Chavis ($911,250), Auburn's Brian VanGorder ($875,000) and Georgia's Todd Grantham ($825,000).

Smart has received $100,000 increases after each of the past two seasons, and Chavis' compensation is contractually set to rise to $1.1 million in 2013.

Clemson also has the seventh-highest paid assistant, defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who is making $800,000 this season after making less than $450,000 last season as Oklahoma's defensive coordinator.

Clemson's assistants -- at a combined total of more than $4.2 million, including outside income -- are the highest-paid group among the 102 public schools for which USA TODAY Sports could obtain 2012 pay information for at least eight of the nine assistants generally allowed by NCAA rules. There are 124 FBS schools.

LSU's assistants also are collecting more than $4 million. Seven other schools have assistants totaling more than $3 million in compensation: Texas, Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Oregon, Florida State and Oklahoma State.

Last year, six schools had $3 million assistant-coaching staffs. In 2009, there was one: Tennessee's, at $3.3 million.

The average pay for assistants at FBS schools (not including four schools that moved up to that level just this season) this season is nearly $201,000.

Eighteen assistants make at least $600,000 this season, almost quadruple the number in 2009. There were 14 last season and nine in 2010.

Among conferences, the SEC has the highest average compensation per assistant this season at more than $315,000. The Big 12 is next at just under $290,000.