2026 NCAA men’s basketball head coach salaries methodology

USA TODAY Sports requested all forms of compensation for the men’s basketball head coach, and/or acquired the federal tax return, from each school in the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences and from prominent schools outside those conferences whose teams have appeared regularly in NCAA tournaments in the past five years.

Except as noted, a not available (designated by “—" in the table) denotes schools that are private; did not release the information; or schools whose coaches are new. A $0 means the coach doesn’t get compensation from that source. In cases where an athletically related outside-income report was unavailable, a coach’s compensation might be undercounted by thousands of dollars from that category alone.

Figures for public schools are based on the coach’s contract year that covers, or covered, the 2025-26 season, including the most recently available base salary.

COMPENSATION CATEGORIES

SCHOOL PAY: The most recently available base salary, except as noted; income from contract provisions other than base salary that are paid, or guaranteed, by the university or affiliated organizations, such as a foundation or an athletics department operating as a related non-profit organization. Examples include payments in consideration for shoe and apparel use; television, radio or other media appearances; and personal appearances.

It also includes deferred payments earned annually, conditional or otherwise; contractual expense accounts (if unaudited) and housing allowance; signing and other one-time bonuses considered to be earned in the current contract year.

It does not include other amounts that might have been earned as annual incentive bonuses in other years, the value of standard university benefits such as health care or the value of potentially taxable items such as cars; country club memberships; game tickets for the regular season, postseason and other sports; the value of stadium suites; travel upgrades; spouse/family travel and game tickets; and amounts connected to transactions related to buyouts owed by coaches for terminating a contract with a prior employer.

OTHER PAY: Amounts listed on the coach’s most recently available, self-reported athletically related outside-income report. Some public schools, citing public records disclosure exemptions, do not provide the outside-income report.

TOTAL PAY: Sum of School Pay and Other Pay.

MAXIMUM BONUS: The greatest amount that can be received if the team meets prescribed on-court performance goals (e.g., NCAA Tournament goals, wins totals, regular-season and/or conference tournament championships, coaching awards, etc.), academic and/or player-conduct goals. Also includes amounts for reaching ticket sales, attendance or other goals, including those related to national TV appearances and guarantee-game revenue. Bonuses that can be awarded on a discretionary basis are not included.

BONUSES PAID: These were not calculated for the 2025-26 seasons.

SCHOOL BUYOUT OWED AS OF APRIL 1, 2026: Amount school would owe coach if he is fired without cause on April 1, 2026. Except as noted, these figures do not take into account the potential impact of automatic contract extensions that could be achieved in connection with meeting goals such as the team appearing in the NCAA Tournament. Many of these amounts are expressly subject to coach’s duty to make good-faith efforts to find another job, with income from that employment offsetting the amount owed. If mitigation and offset are not addressed in contract, coach still may have obligation to make efforts in that regard.

NOTES

AMOUNTS IN ADDITION TO COACHES' TOTAL PAY: Includes payments made by schools and/or their affiliated organizations on behalf of coaches who owed buyout amounts to their previous employer for terminating contracts so they could accept employment elsewhere.

PITTSBURGH AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS: The pay information listed came from federal tax returns or the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law report. Documents provide compensation for 2023 calendar year based on all income paid by the school or support organizations, including benefits, perks and performance bonuses.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2026 NCAA men’s basketball head coach salaries methodology