Ryan Day is the highest-paid football coach across public schools in the Big Ten, according to USA TODAY Sports’ annual survey of coaching compensation.
Day is due to make just over $10 million in his sixth season leading Ohio State, keeping him among the small handful of those receiving eight figures annually.
The total earnings for Day are $10.02 million, including a compensation package from the university that totals $9.95 million and an endorsement deal from Kroger worth $75,000. It’s slightly down from what he made last season, an amount that included an additional $250,000 retention bonus.
He remains eligible for bonus pay this year after Ohio State in August revised the performance-based incentives in his contract, a result of the expanded College Football Playoff.
The amended structure allows him to make up to $1.55 million in bonuses after his maximum had been $800,000 in previous years.
Day picked up $250,000 in incentives over the 2023-24 academic year, including $200,000 for the Buckeyes’ appearance in the Cotton Bowl and $50,000 from the team’s cumulative 3.24 grade-point average over the fall and spring semesters.
At least seven coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision are making $10 million or more this year, a group led by Georgia’s Kirby Smart.
Under a new deal reached this past spring, Smart became the first coach to earn $13 million in annual compensation from a school.
Other coaches making eight-figures include Clemson’s Dabo Swinney ($11.1 million), Texas’ Steve Sarkisian ($10.6 million), USC’s Lincoln Riley ($10.04 million), Florida State’s Mike Norvell ($10 million) and Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer ($10 million).
Riley is the only other coach in the Big Ten, which now includes four former Pac-12 schools, who could be making more than Day.
As a private school, USC is not required to disclose salary information for its employees, but its federal tax records from 2022 showed him making at least $22,000 more than Day’s reported compensation for this year, putting him one spot above the Buckeyes coach on the list.
Day is the fifth highest-paid coach overall. He was fourth last year and also led all Big Ten coaches as he did in 2021.
Day is 61-9 at Ohio State and led the Buckeyes to the playoff in three times in his first five seasons. They also won the Big Ten championship twice in that span, a feat that came during both of Day’s first two seasons.
