Study: College football coaches are worth their giant salaries — just like CEOs

Study: College football coaches are worth their giant salaries &amp;mdash; just like CEOs

(Image credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

College football coaches and CEOs are alike in that both are often accused of being grossly overpaid. Yet the two are also alike in that they are actually worth those enormous salaries, according to a study from Vanderbilt University professors.

The study, which compared 947 coaching contracts from 2005 to 2013 against those of private sector CEOS, found "many commonalities between the structure and incentives of the employment contracts of CEOs and these football coaches." Namely, the researchers found that the value coaches returned to their schools — via increased ticket sales, bigger TV deals, and so on — was commensurate with their pay. That largely mirrored CEO salaries, which are typically tied to company performance, according to the study.

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.

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