Three-Point Stance: Observations on the coaching salary database

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s thought-provoking Three-Point Stance is here with a look at the 10 highest paid coaches in college football, the five best bargain salaries and five coaches who should be embarrassed by their buyouts.

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USA TODAY has come out with its college football coaching salary database, which is always fodder for me. To get right to the point, here are the top 10 and whether they are overpaid or underpaid.

Note: All numbers compiled by USA Today.

• Nick Saban, Alabama, $11.1 million – UNDERPAID – Saban is the highest paid coach in college football this season and he’s underpaid. You can’t put a value on what he has brought to the Alabama program.

• Dabo Swinney, Clemson, $8.5 million – UNDERPAID – Two straight title games, a national championship and recruiting at the highest level. That’s what Dabo has brought to little Clemson, S.C., and he deserves the raise he got and probably more.

• Jim Harbaugh, Michigan, $7 million – OVERPAID – I’ll be blunt. To earn this money, you not only must win a division or conference title, you need to win a national title.

• Urban Meyer, Ohio State, $6.4 million – UNDERPAID – If I’m Meyer and I’m looking up at Harbaugh and Swinney, I’m asking to be put in the $11 million range immediately. That’s not knock against anyone, Meyer is just in the Saban neighborhood of coaches and should be paid as such.

• Rich Rodriguez, Arizona, $6 million – OVERPAID – A division title but not much else and on the hot seat recently, I had to do a double take when I saw this number. Must have been that amazing job he did at Michigan that led to this contract.

• Jimbo Fisher, Florida State, $5.7 million – UNDERPAID – I know, I know, FSU is 2-4 and this season has been a disaster, but Fisher has delivered a national title and usually has his team battling for the playoff. Perhaps Clemson’s rise should drop him down a bit, but I don’t think so. He’s one of the top coaches in college football.

• David Shaw, Stanford, $5.7 million – UNDERPAID – Stanford has to deal with the toughest academic standards in college football yet Shaw continues to recruit at a high level and battle for the Pac-12 year in and year out. He’s worth it and then some.

• Tom Herman, Texas, $5.5 million – OVERPAID – The only reason I say this is because of the huge difference between Herman’s salary and Lincoln Riley’s (below). If I had given myself a JUST RIGHT option he’d fit there, but that’s a wimp move.

• Gary Patterson, TCU, $5.1 million – UNDERPAID – He has done more with less than a few guys ahead of him on the salary scale and is arguably the most important coach to his program in the country. Without Patterson, TCU isn’t even in a Power Five conference.

• Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M, $5 million – OVERPAID – The fast starts have been nice but he hasn’t delivered much else and is making too much for a coach who hasn’t won anything.

While the guys above make the big bucks, some coaches are vastly underpaid based on their results. Here are five guys who are being robbed of money by their respective schools.

• Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech, $3.3 million – He’s only in his second year and he’s already one of the best coaches in the country. This is a big-time bargain.

• Paul Chryst, Wisconsin, $3.3 million – Wisconsin is Wisconsin with or without Chryst you could argue, but I argue that he’s taken them up a notch in the last couple of years and deserves to be near the top 10 in salary. He’s the only Big Ten West coach who could win the East.

• Dave Doeren, NC State, $2.2 million – He’s 13-23 in the ACC and underpaid? It’s not easy to compete for an ACC title in the same division as Clemson, Florida State and Louisville, but he’s doing it.

• Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma, $2.1 million – Replacing Bob Stoops isn’t easy and deserves more money than this. He deserves more for such a big job.

• Matt Campbell, Iowa State, $2.1 million – He will be a hot coach this off-season and get a raise, but the job he’s done at Iowa State is better than this salary.

Guaranteed money owed to coaches, otherwise known as buyouts, can hamper a program in a massive way and lead to a coach staying long past his effective date. Based on the USA TODAY info, these are the eye-boggling buyouts I noticed that could force teams to be stuck with the wrong fit longer than they want.

• Lovie Smith, Illinois, $16.5 million – Nothing about this Illinois football team screams competitive yet and it almost seems to have taken a step backward from last season in some areas if that’s possible. Why it over-reached for the former Bears coach, I have no idea.

• Larry Fedora, UNC, $14.7 million – Remember when he was a hot name linked to Texas, LSU and other jobs at least as a middling candidate? What if UNC has another year like this one? The team has been beyond horrible this season.

• Jim McElwain, Florida, $12.9 million – Many want him gone because the offense is a joke and now they feel he’s trying to garner sympathy with death threat talk this week. Things have gotten very ugly very quickly for a coach who has won the SEC East twice in a row, and this number is a big one.

• Jim Mora, UCLA, $12.3 million – UCLA doesn’t play with fire and can’t put a supporting cast around the best NFL quarterback prospect in the country. Mora has underachieved like crazy, especially with the talent pool he can recruit from geographically.

• Ed Orgeron, LSU, $8.7 million – Orgeron has righted the ship a bit with wins over Florida, Auburn and Ole Miss, but those aren’t good football teams and his drubbing at the hands of Alabama is upcoming. Remember, this is a guy who got blown out by a very average Mississippi State team and already has a home loss to Troy. Some people want him gone and gone now, but that buyout is something else.