How much does it cost to win a major college football game?

On a recent ESPN.com post, a blogger (Feldman, Forde, or someone else) posted the salaries of all of the FBS head football coaches for this year. Curious, I wanted to know if you get what you paid for in college football, and the answer is a resounding yes. I looked at the salaries and the win/loss records of the top 61 programs the salary numbers were posted for, and put this into a database.
(Note: Some private schools didn't release their salary numbers, Notre Dame, Stanford, etc...) All of the schools looked at are from Automatic Qualifier conferences, and I added TCU, Boise State, and Utah.

Here are some of the findings: The average major college program salary was just over 2.01 million dollars.

Highest paid coaches:

1. Nick Saban - Alabama - 5.99 million
2. Mack Brown - Texas - 5.16 million
3. Bob Stoops - Oklahoma - 4.37 million
4. Urban Meyer - Florida - 4.01 million
5. Les Miles - Louisiana State - 3.90 million
6. Jim Tressel - Ohio State - 3.88 million
7. Kirk Ferentz - Iowa - 3.78 million
8. Jim Grobe - Wake Forest - 2.93 million
9. Mark Richt - Georgia - 2.93 million
10. Bobby Petrino - Arkansas - 2.71 million

From this a couple of trends appear. It is expensive to win in the SEC, 5 of the top 10 programs. But, at least the SEC is without a doubt the top league. The Big 12, Big 10 have 2 coaches each and the ACC has one. Right now Jim Grobe looks to be the most overpaid coach in the nation.

The Lowest Paid Coaches

1. Paul Wulff - Washington State - 600,650
2. Bill Lynch - Indiana - 650,000
3. Tim Brewster - Minnesota -808,000
4. Art Briles - Baylor - 878,000
5. Danny Hope - Purdue - 900,000
6. Bill Stewart - West Virginia - 933,000
7. Dave Wannstedt - Pittsburgh-1,010,873
8. Paul Rhodes - Iowa State - 1,051,145
9. Butch Jones - Cincinnati - 1,101,500
10. Joe Paterno - Penn State - 1,110,000

No shocks here, except #10. JoePa is without question the best deal in football. Bill Stewart at West Virginia is another good deal, while Lynch, Brewster, and Wannstedt all got fired this year. So, it seems getting paid more protects your job security.

To answer the title of the post: How much does it cost to win a major college football game?
The answer is : $311,317.10

The schools that paid the most per win this year:

1. Texas - Mack Brown - 1,032,300 (13 yrs at Texas, record 133-34, 12 bowls, 1 Champ., 4 BCS)
2. Wake Forest - Grobe - 979,825 (10 yrs. at Wake, record 62-60, 4 bowls, 1 BCS bowl, lost)
3. Kansas - Turner Gill - 700,400 (4 yrs total as coach, 23-36, 1 bowl, loss in International bowl)
4. Alabama - Nick Saban - 666,372 (4 yrs at Bama, total record 133-53-1, 2 Champ. 4 BCS)
5. Ole Miss - Houston Nutt - 627,250 (3 yrs Ole Miss, total record, 133-86, No BCS, 10 bowls)
6. Florida - Urban Meyer - 572,857 (6 yrs at Florida, total record, 103-23, 2 Champ, 4 BCS)
7. Iowa - Kirk Ferentz - 540,142 (12 yrs at Iowa, record 88-57, 2 BCS, 9 bowls)
8. Duke - David Cutcliffe - 527,301 (3 yrs at Duke, total record 54-50, No BCS, 5 bowls/10 yrs)
9. Rutgers - Greg Schiano - 500,233 (10 yrs at Rutgers, 59-63, No BCS, 5 Bowls/10 yrs)
10. Georgia - Mark Richt - 489,623 (10 yrs at Georgia, 96-33, 3 BCS, 10 Bowls in 10 yrs)

I'm willing to give a pass to any coach who has won a national championship or at least gone to multiple BCS bowls. Those bring in tons of cash, so you can expect to pay the coach a lot more. So, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, and Georgia, you pay a lot, but each just had a down year by their standards.

In conclusion, the most overpaid coaches in the country are:

5. Turner Gill - Kansas - he gets somewhat of a pass, because this was year 1 at Kansas and he had no talent on that team.
4. Houston Nutt - Ole Miss - he's had some good teams and good players, but his biggest win is the Cotton Bowl. Is that really worth 2.5 million a year.
3. David Cutcliffe - Duke - Stunk at Ole Miss, has been worse at Duke. You're a basketball school, don't pay a coach 1.5 million. It doesn't cost that much to win one conference game in a bad conference.
2. Greg Schiano - Rutgers - He had them ranked for a couple of years, three years ago. He can thank Ray Rice (Baltimore Ravens) for this contract. Never a big bowl, but over 2 million.
1. Jim Grobe - Wake Forest - He won a terrible ACC one year, only finished in the polls one year, winning seasons in only half of his years, won ten games just once, but gets paid roughly the same as the Clemson and NC State coaches who put the beat down on Wake by a combined 68-13 this year. Congratulations, Jim Grobe, you are the worst coach for the money in college football.