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Do you have a unquenchable love of the game, but don’t actually want to play the sport, but still use your knowledge on how to play to make money? Well, coaching might just be the perfect career choice for you! Okay, many professional coaches are former players, but you get the joke.
USA Today and Land of 10 listed the salaries of the coaches in the Big Ten, complete with their national ranking. Does this list making coaching seem like the job for you?
Jim Harbaugh
School: Michigan
Salary: $7,004,000
Ranking: 3rd nationally
This Toledo native is a former quarterback but now makes his living as the head coach for the University of Michigan Wolverines.
Urban Meyer
School: Ohio State
Salary: $6,431,240
Ranking: 4th
Once playing football at the University of Cincinnati, Meyer was a coach for the Bowling Green Falcons and Florida Gators before taking on the Ohio State Buckeyes.
James Franklin
School: Penn State
Salary: $4,600,000
Ranking: 12th
Like many on this list, this Pennsylvania boy was also a player-turned-coach. I’m noticing a pattern here.
Kirk Ferentz
School: Iowa
Salary: $4,550,000
Ranking: 13th
Kirk James Ferentz has been the head football coach at the University of Iowa since 1999.
Mark Dantonio
School: Michigan State
Salary: $4,390,492
Ranking: 16th
Mark Dantonio has been Michigan State University’s head football coach since 2007. And yes, he’s a former player. I really regret that joke at the start.
P.J. Fleck
School: Minnesota
Salary: $3,500,000
Ranking: 29th
Once the head coach of the Western Michigan Broncos, Phillip John (yes, that’s what P.J. stands for!) Fleck is now the head coach for the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team.
Jeff Brohm
School: Purdue
Salary: $3,333,333
Ranking: 31st
This former quarterback is the head coach at Purdue University, after formerly being a coach at Western Kentucky University.
Pat Fitzgerald
School: Northwestern
Salary: $3,305,818
Ranking: 32nd
The current head coach of the Northwestern University Wildcats football team has been in this role since 2006, since the death of Randy Walker.
Paul Chryst
School: Wisconsin
Salary: $3,200,000
Ranking: 36th
Once serving as the University of Pittsburgh, Chryst is the head football coach for the Wisconsin Badgers.
Lovie Smith
School: Illinois
Salary: $3,000,000
Ranking: 39th
Former head coach of the Chicago Bears, this current head football coach of the University of Illinois was also a former player. All the coaches on this list were former players, even the ones I did not mention. Must be a prerequisite.
