An Economic Analysis on the Base Salaries of NCAA Division I Football Head Coaches

Abstract

The goal of this research is to develop a working model that successfully describes current base pay of NCAA Division I College Football head coaches and can be used to predict the base salary of future head coaches. The compensation for head football coaches across the NCAA’s Division I programs was determined using data collected following the 2024-25 season. Coaching compensation is regressed on variables capturing a coach’s personal characteristics, productivity, and institutional characteristics. The results yield four important explanatory variables. Two are coach specific: years on contract, and career win percentage. The remaining are institutional: NIL collectives, and the conference dummy variable. While previous studies regarding head coaching salaries have been conducted, there has been no estimate of a compensation function provided after the implementation of NIL Collectives, and somewhat recent restructuring of the various, competing conferences. Pending the results of this regression analysis, future research could continue for such studies towards subsequent divisions/levels of competition