College football's list of highest-paid coaches is expected to change significantly for the 2022 season coming off a wild coaching carousel featuring several record-setting deals.
Lincoln Riley landing at USC and Brian Kelly's move to LSU resulted in huge, long-term contracts for the two high-profile coaches, not to mention notable extensions for Mel Tucker and James Franklin within the Big Ten, among others.
If there's more extensions or substantial raises this offseason,
that would mean Alabama's Nick Saban likely gets a bump in salary too thanks to specific contract language that guarantees he'll be one of the nation's highest-paid.
And he still has the College Football Playoff and potentially another national championship game to play as well.
One coach surprisingly not on the list of the top 10 highest-paid is Michigan's Jim Harbaugh, who just led the Wolverines to their first Big Ten Championship of his tenure.
Harbaugh went from the Big Ten's highest-paid coach at $8 million in base salary after taking a massive paycut in January.
He is guaranteed $4.1 million in 2022, $4.2 million in 2023, $4.3 million in 2024 and $4.4 million in 2025, according to MLive, with a contract that's laced with incentives.
Based on expected salary figures and reported contract numbers for several new arrivals, here's who we expect to be the nation's 10 highest-paid head coaches during the 2022 season.
10. RYAN DAY, OHIO STATE 2022 base compensation: $7.6 million
9. MARIO CRISTOBAL, MIAMI 2022 base compensation: $8 million
T8. JAMES FRANKLIN, PENN STATE 2022 compensation: $8.5 million
T8. DABO SWINNEY, CLEMSON 2022 compensation: $8.5 million
T6. DAVID SHAW, STANFORD 2022 compensation: $9 million (estimated)
T6. JIMBO FISHER, TEXAS A&M 2022 compensation: $9 million
T4. MEL TUCKER, MICHIGAN STATE 2022 compensation: $9.5 million
T4. BRIAN KELLY, LSU 2022 compensation: $9.5 million
2. NICK SABAN, ALABAMA 2022 compensation: $9.9 million (estimated)
1. LINCOLN RILEY, USC 2022 compensation: $10 million (estimated)