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Maryland football’s DJ Durkin has the 9th-highest salary among Big Ten coaches

This is the Maryland Minute, a short story followed by a roundup of Terps-related news.

Sammi Silber / Testudo Times

On Wednesday, USA Today released its annual list of college football coaches’ salaries. You should definitely check it out. The whole list is interesting, but for the purposes of our Maryland sports website, I’ve grabbed the rankings of all the Big Ten coaches to see where DJ Durkin ranks in all of this.

Durkin’s $2.4 million puts him ninth among Big Ten coaches and 46th among coaches nationally. Certain schools didn’t have to release this information, though all Big Ten schools did.

I think it’s fun to check out what head coaches’ salary rankings look like when they’re matched up with their teams’ current S&P+ rankings. As expected, salary and current team success have a mostly positive correlation, but not a completely positive one.

Team Coach Salary Ranking S&P+ Salary
1 Michigan Jim Harbaugh 1 1 $9 freaking million
2 Ohio State Urban Meyer 2 5 $6 million
3 Penn State James Franklin 10 16 $4.5 million
4 Iowa Kirk Ferentz 11 42 $4.5 million
5 Michigan State Mark Dantonio 14 81 $4.3 million
6 Northwestern Pat Fitzgerald 28 57 $3.35 million
7 Nebraska Mike Riely 42 22 $2.8 million
8 Wisconsin Paul Chryst 43 10 $2.7 million
9 Maryland DJ Durkin 46 63 $2.4 million
10 Indiana Kevin Wilson 50 47 $2.3 million
11 Purdue Darrell Hazell 53 112 $2.2 million
12 Rutgers Chris Ash 57 116 $2 million
13 Illinois Lovie Smith 60 85 $1.8 million
14 Minnesota Tracy Claeys 68 39 $1.4 million

Some quick notes, without much research:

  • Durkin makes more than Chris Ash, Lovie Smith and Tracy Claeys, the conferences other two new head coaches (Claeys was hired last year as an interim, but I’m including him here because it’s still his first full year being a head coach)
  • Yes, Darrell Hazell is still on this list even though he got fired from Purdue
  • Jim Harbaugh makes sooooo much money. He’s not just the highest-paid coach in the conference. He’s the highest-paid coach in the country. Nick Saban, the second-highest-paid coach in the country, makes $6.9 million a year
  • Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst seem like the biggest bargain, at least for this season
  • Grading people only on what their S&P+ ranking is right now is probably silly, since coaches are in various stages of rebuilds across the Big Ten, and those can take some time

What are your thoughts? Share in the comments.

In other news

Maryland volleyball upset Ohio State last night for second straight season..

Darrius Heyward-Bey and Vernon Davis were standouts among Maryland alumni in the NFL last weekend.

In our weekly podcast, we previewed Indiana and discussed what the Michigan State win means.

Maryland women’s soccer lost to Minnesota, 6-0, to end its season.

The Cubs won the second game of the World Series.

Good stuff from SB Nation’s Bill Connelly on whether or not this is the year a two-loss team makes the College Football Playoff.