Deadspin Presents the most overpaid & underpaid coaches in college football: Vol. 2, The Nice Price Guys

Earlier this week USA Today released its comprehensive list of college football coaches ‘ salaries for this season.

We decided to take a look at this list and break down the most overpaid and underpaid coaches in college football for the 2020 season.

Salary calculations are based on the total amount of resources that the individual received for the year including base pay, bonuses, and insurance policies.

In response to the pandemic, some of these coaches’ salaries include pay cuts to help keep athletic programs afloat, these pay cuts were included in the total salary calculations.

Let’s finish this off with Volume 2, the Nice Price Guys.

Shaw is arguably one of the most underrated coaches in college football. Since taking over at Stanford he has 71 percent of his games, and has only had one losing season. He’s won three Pac 12 titles, two Rose Bowls, and has had five seasons with at least 10 wins. And this is Stanford, where the academic standards don’t get any higher. It’s a shame Shaw is not near the top ten in compensation for the job he’s done with this Stanford program.

In Whittingham’s 17 seasons as the Utes head coach he has a winning percentage of 67 percent and led Utah to an undefeated season in 2008 — when the Utes were in the Mountain West Conference — as well as eight seasons with at least 9 wins, five of those since Utah joined the Pac 12. Since taking over for Urban Meyer in 2004, Whittingham has won 78 percent of his bowl games including a Sugar Bowl victory over Nick Saban and Alabama to finish the 2008 season. And due to the pandemic, Whittingham will be taking the second-highest pay cut of any coach this season ($365,822). Florida State’s Mike Norvell will take the highest cut of $468,750 from his salary.

Chryst is criminally underpaid in Madison right now. Since taking over the Wisconsin program in 2015 he has only had one season where he failed to win at least 10 games. He’s won 4 out of 5 bowl games which include back to back New Year’s Six bowl victories in 2016 and 2017. Chryst led the Badgers to three Big Ten West championships and three Big Ten Championship game appearances. He’s already been named Big Ten Coach of the year twice in five seasons and is the third Big Ten coach in the recent history to win more than 50 games in his first five seasons.

In the last three seasons, Campbell has taken Iowa State to three straight bowl games and the Cyclones are currently tied for first place in the Big 12 standings after defeating both TCU and Oklahoma. Campbell was also named Big 12 coach of the year in back-to-back seasons (2017, 2018). He’s resurrected Iowa State to its second-best three-year stretch in the history of the program. He has risen the program to national prominence by appearing in the College Football Playoff rankings in each of the last three seasons. Campbell is on the verge of a breakthrough at Iowa State.

The Navy coach flies under the radar in most seasons because of the lack of exposure granted to the Midshipmen. Yet, despite the lack of national attention, Niumatalolo has carved out an impressive resume at Navy. In 13 full seasons, he’s only had two seasons with a losing record. He’s won six bowl games and has led Navy to three seasons with at least 10 wins. Niumatalolo is the winningest coach in Navy history and stomped arch-rival Army eight straight times to start his career. He’s now 9-3 vs. Army in his time at Navy. Overall Niumatalolo has coached the Naval Academy to 10 winning seasons since he was hired to steer Navy’s best and brightest, yet he ranks 60th in compensation among college coaches.