COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State football ranks behind some of the country's power programs when it comes to assistant coaches salaries, according to data compiled by USA Today and released on Wednesday.

The Buckeyes' money pool for Urban Meyer's nine assistant coaches this year totals $4.485 million, which ranks 13th in the country. The nation's leader in assistant coach pay, Alabama, paid its assistants a total of $5.995 million.

Michigan, which paid out $5.645 million this year, is the only Big Ten program to out-spend Ohio State on assistants. Fifteen assistant coaches across FBS programs made more than $1 million this year. Nine of those 15 assistants are from the SEC.

LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda led the way with a salary of $1.8 million. Michigan is the only program with three million-dollar assistants. LSU and Alabama each have two.

Ohio State's highest-paid assistant coach, defensive coordinator Greg Schiano, made $700,000 this year. That ranked 44th in USA Today's database, which doesn't include some data from private universities.

Schiano's salary this year is actually $50,000 less than what co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell made in 2016, his final year with Ohio State before he left to be the head coach at Cincinnati.

(Fun fact: Fickell's $1.9 million salary at Cincinnati this year would have just barely made him the highest-paid assistant coach in the country.)

Ohio State, the only program to finish top 10 in both total offense and total defense this year, did so without breaking the million-dollar assistant threshold. The Buckeyes can only hold off for so long.

"It's gonna happen here one day," athletic director Gene Smith told cleveland.com last January. "We're gonna do our best to make sure we compensate people based on market performance. Our market in the Big Ten has been pretty stable. (Michigan) will change it. When will it have its effect? I can't project. But it will eventually."

Maybe next year? That's what we've been saying about the Buckeyes for two years now. But it still hasn't happened.

Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ryan Day is set to be Ohio State's highest-paid assistant coach in 2018. According to contract information obtained by cleveland.com, Day's two-year, $1.2 million deal was broken up into $400,000 in 2017, and $800,000 in 2018.

The only other assistant with a contract that runs through next season is offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Kevin Wilson, who's slated to make $750,000 next year.

Every other Buckeye assistant has a contract that expires in January or April 2018.

Expect most, if not all of them to be back. While each coach up for a new contract will likely see a raise, none of them will get near $1 million. Except for maybe Schiano, who has worked for two seasons under separate one-year deals. He made $600,000 in 2016 (when he was still being paid by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and $700,000 this year. His current contract runs out on Jan. 31, 2018.

He reportedly had a deal in place to become Tennessee's head coach before that fell apart. It's possible he's still a candidate somewhere else with the coach-hiring season far from over.

Would Schiano be able to leverage something into a million-dollar deal from Ohio State? Would the school be willing to pay that much for an assistant with its pool already shallower than other major programs, and the ability to hire a 10th assistant coach coming in January?

Smith said Ohio State would make the move eventually, when the market dictated it. Eventually might be now.

Bonuses for OSU assistants

Assistant coaches did make some extra cash this year. According to contact information, each assistant is entitled to:

* A bonus of 8.5 percent of their base salary for winning the Big Ten East.

* A bonus of 4.25 percent of their base salary for winning the Big Ten Championship.

* A bonus of 4.25 percent of their base salary for winning nine games, and making a non-playoff bowl game.

With all of that, Ohio State still didn't have an assistant make more than $1 million.

Marotti gets paid

USA Today also compiled salary data for each program's head strength and conditioning coach. Ohio State's Mickey Marotti came in at No. 2 with a salary of $562,440. Marotti's base salary this year was more than every Ohio State assistant coach other than Schiano and Wilson.

Iowa's Chris Doyle was the highest-paid strength coach in the country at $675,000.