Overview of NCAA football post-season incentives
College football season is well under way! While fans root for their favorite teams, coaches are working to fulfill the duties of their contracts, which include a variety of financial incentives. Coaches who carry their teams to or through the College Football Playoff (CFP) championship will receive a variety of performance bonuses. WTW has analyzed these incentives from various angles.
Team-performance incentives typically comprise a significant amount of compensation for football head coaches as well as offensive and defensive coordinators. A significant portion of a typical Division I football coach’s incentive opportunity is based on their team qualifying for and competing in NCAA post-season tournament games, commonly referred to as “bowl games.” Amounts vary greatly for the type of bowl game reached (regular, New Year’s Six, CFP). The sheer number of the awards and the degree of variance between different levels of achievement demonstrate how much universities value the success of individual coaches and the national prestige and additional revenue that go hand in hand with post-season performance.
Figure 1 provides details on incentive opportunity for four different types of bowl game achievement, across the Power Five conferences — Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-12 (Pac-12) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) — and three other Group of Five conferences — Conference USA (CUSA), Mid-American Conference (MAC) and American Athletic Conference (AAC). These incentives are shown for the head coach, offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators. Data are shown for participating in three different bowl games and winning the CFP championship.
| Head coach | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | $75 | $150 | $225 | $300 |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | $63 | $175 | $250 | $300 |
| Big Ten | $100 | $200 | $263 | $350 |
| Big 12 | $50 | $113 | $188 | $275 |
| Pac-12 | $70 | $150 | $200 | $250 |
| SEC | $100 | $200 | $300 | $450 |
| Other** | $75 | $150 | $200 | $300 |
| Offensive coordinator | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | $25 | $38 | $50 | $83 |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | $20 | $40 | $50 | $25 |
| Big Ten | $45 | $69 | $89 | $169 |
| Big 12 | $20 | $30 | $111 | $100 |
| Pac-12 | $15 | $20 | $25 | $35 |
| SEC | $28 | $47 | $65 | $75 |
| Other** | $25 | $38 | $50 | $83 |
| Defensive coordinator | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | $25 | $40 | $50 | $88 |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | $29 | $39 | $44 | $25 |
| Big Ten | $71 | $76 | $71 | $165 |
| Big 12 | $27 | $41 | $54 | $95 |
| Pac-12 | $15 | $18 | $20 | $35 |
| SEC | $61 | $95 | $135 | $150 |
| Other** | $25 | $40 | $50 | $88 |
*New Year’s Six Bowl Game
**Other includes CUSA, MAC and AAC
***Note: Values reflect median for programs that provide awards for each achievement. See Figures 3a and 3b for prevalence.
The remainder of this article outlines major findings from WTW’s recent analysis of bowl game incentives for 52 head coaches, 45 offensive coordinators and 52 defensive coordinators across eight major athletic conferences.
Intuitively, our study found that the type of bowl game drives the amount of the incentive, and most schools place the highest emphasis on winning the CFP championship game. The median bonus for making a New Year’s Six game is more than double the median bonus paid to head coaches whose programs are selected for a regular bowl game. The bonuses for winning the CFP are even higher, though these payouts are far less common overall, given there is only one champion per season (Figure 2).
| Sample | Head coach | Offensive coordinator | Defensive coordinator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 53 | 42 | 44 |
| Program revenue | |||
| $0-$29 million | 14 | 7 | 12 |
| $30-$59 million | 17 | 14 | 13 |
| $60+ million | 22 | 21 | 19 |
| Conference | |||
| Big 12 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Big Ten | 12 | 11 | 11 |
| Pac-12 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| ACC | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| SEC | 9 | 7 | 6 |
| Other* | 11 | 5 | 8 |
*Other includes CUSA, MAC and AAC
Note: Amounts shown for each round are incremental and independently arrayed to derive median statistics.
Incentives awarded for a bowl game selection are prevalent among all the studied sample: All of the studied institutions provide a bonus to at least the head coach for making or winning one or more variations of a bowl game.
| Head coach | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | 88% | 98% | 100% | 88% |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | 100% | 100% | 100% | 83% |
| Big Ten | 75% | 92% | 100% | 83% |
| Big 12 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Pac-12 | 86% | 100% | 100% | 86% |
| SEC | 88% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Other** | 91% | 100% | 100% | 82% |
| Offensive coordinator | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | 73% | 80% | 78% | 53% |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | 33% | 33% | 33% | 33% |
| Big Ten | 64% | 64% | 64% | 36% |
| Big 12 | 78% | 100% | 89% | 89% |
| Pac-12 | 75% | 88% | 88% | 38% |
| SEC | 89% | 89% | 89% | 78% |
| Other** | 80% | 80% | 80% | 20% |
| Defensive coordinator | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | 67% | 73% | 75% | 50% |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | 40% | 40% | 40% | 20% |
| Big Ten | 45% | 55% | 64% | 45% |
| Big 12 | 89% | 100% | 100% | 89% |
| Pac-12 | 63% | 75% | 75% | 38% |
| SEC | 89% | 89% | 89% | 78% |
| Other** | 67% | 67% | 67% | 11% |
| Head coach | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | 46 | 51 | 52 | 42 |
| Program revenue | ||||
| $0-$29 million | 13 | 14 | 14 | 9 |
| $30-$59 million | 17 | 18 | 18 | 16 |
| $60+ million | 16 | 19 | 20 | 17 |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Big Ten | 9 | 11 | 12 | 9 |
| Big 12 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Pac-12 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| SEC | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Other** | 10 | 11 | 11 | 6 |
| Offensive coordinator | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | 30 | 32 | 32 | 20 |
| Program revenue | ||||
| $0-$29 million | 6 | 6 | 6 | 2 |
| $30-$59 million | 9 | 11 | 11 | 5 |
| $60+ million | 15 | 15 | 15 | 13 |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Big Ten | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| Big 12 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Pac-12 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 2 |
| SEC | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| Other** | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Defensive coordinator | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Non-CFP | NY6* | CFP Semi-final | Win CFP Champ |
| Total | 29 | 31 | 32 | 19 |
| Program revenue | ||||
| $0-$29 million | 9 | 9 | 9 | 2 |
| $30-$59 million | 8 | 10 | 11 | 4 |
| $60+ million | 12 | 12 | 12 | 13 |
| Conference | ||||
| ACC | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Big Ten | 5 | 6 | 7 | 5 |
| Big 12 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Pac-12 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| SEC | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Other** | 6 | 6 | 6 | 1 |
*New Year’s Six Bowl Game
**Other includes CUSA, MAC and AAC
As shown in figures 3a and 3b, college football programs typically provide incentives to head coaches for each type of bowl game, whereas award prevalence for offensive and defensive coordinators varies by game and conference. The Big 12 and SEC member schools provide a bonus opportunity to nearly 80% or more of their offensive and defensive coordinators across all game types. ACC member schools provide bonus opportunities for these two positions only about 20% to 40% of the time at each type of bowl game.
On a conference level, the SEC and Big Ten have the highest median incentive payouts at all levels, with the SEC having the highest median payout for winning the national championship game. There is a higher emphasis on the championship win compared with all other conferences. It is also worth noting in this instance that the SEC has won the CFP championship six times since its inception in 2014.
*Other conferences include CUSA, MAC and AAC
The relationship between athletic program revenue and coach incentives provides another interesting perspective to benchmark coaching pay elements. Unsurprisingly, the bonus opportunities provided for winning the CFP championship are most significant for head coaches. Our study found that the difference in incentives between head coaches and their coordinators increases as programs play in more significant bowl games, while the difference between offensive and defensive coordinator incentives is negligible across all bowl games when looking at payouts as a percentage of program revenue.
*Amounts shown for each round are incremental and independently arrayed to derive median statistics.
For many coaches, bowl season makes up a significant portion of their overall earnings. Lower-revenue programs award their coaches by making a bowl game, while the standards for programs with greater revenue are much higher and may only pay out for making a New Year’s six game or CFP semifinal.
We have also seen that coaches in the Big Ten conference are compensated better for participating in bowl games, whereas the SEC is by far the greatest payer for winning the CFP championship.
There was never a doubt that there would be a benefit to qualifying to play in a bowl game, but if you help manage compensation for football coaches at an academic institution, you may be asking yourself, what does this mean for me? More specifically, how can universities best leverage market data to position themselves favorably to attract, retain and motivate top coaching talent? What role can compensation and incentive design play in achieving these objectives, and what tangible actions can managers take to improve programs under their purview? How may conference realignment affect football coaching staff incentive schemes among Power Five and Group of Five institutions?
WTW can help provide the data and consulting solutions needed to answer these important questions. Please do not hesitate to contact one of our professionals listed below with any questions about the data contained herein or to assist your university in determining the most appropriate and competitive contract terms for any lead coaching and athletic director positions.
