I agree on the amount of money spent on our coaching staffs at MN, especially for the football program, and here is the best way to illustrate it. This is some data put together by USA Today Sports on Big1G assistant coaching staff combined salaries pool by team for 2024:
2024 Big Ten football assistant coaches' total salaries
- Ohio State $11,425,000
- Michigan $9,384,000
- Oregon $8,295,000
- Iowa $7,900,000
- Washington $7,200,000
- Michigan State $6,975,000
- Nebraska $6,775,000
- Indiana $5,935,000 after the 2024 season, and Cignetti's extension this moved to $11M
- Rutgers $5,750,000
- Maryland $5,475,000
- Wisconsin $5,375,000
- Illinois $5,325,000
- Purdue $4,965,000
- UCLA $4,670,000
- Minnesota $4,599,000 - Before the 2025 season and PJ's extension, this moved to $5.5M
So, with the updated salaries heading into 2025, you would have OSU at #1, then IU at #2, followed by Mich at #3, ORE at #4, and then Iowa sits at #5. Do we see any correlation with how this year's standings look (just push Mich down a spot) compared to the assistant
coaches' total salaries? (
Note: USC & NW are private, so they don't report amounts) More money and staff to focus not only on coaching the players (supposedly better coaches), but also on more resources to manage the recruiting process. The Iowa program drives me nuts, but they are putting their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting their program. It would be interesting to see if anything would change if we provided that level of support for 3-4 yrs.
