What would it cost to hire Steve Spurrier? Enough to make Barry Switzer gasp | Toppmeyer

• In 2000, Steve Spurrier was the only college football coach earning a $2 million salary. That translates to $3.6 million today. That wouldn't get you an SEC coach nowadays.
• As coaches complain about NIL and transfer strains on their jobs, there's never been a better time to work in college football, at least in financial terms.
• Nick Saban pours one out for college football as he knew it.

“It’s your job. … That’s what the money is for.” – Don Draper, “Mad Men”

You’ve probably heard this is a frustrating time to coach college football. That’s the narrative, anyway, megaphoned by some coaches and media types who struggle to accept NIL and free transfer movement and the headaches they might cause.

To be sure, college sports evolved throughout these past few years. Roster management is a chore. Players enjoy more power. The recruiting calendar is unrelenting.

In financial terms, though, there has never been a better time to coach college football.

Steve Spurrier became the first college football coach to reach a $2 million salary. He earned that pay bump after leading the 1996 Florida Gators to the program’s first national championship.

By 2000, he remained the only $2 million college coach. Several others earned seven figures annually, including Florida State’s Bobby Bowden ($1.5 million). In the SEC, two coaches joined Spurrier with salaries topping $1 million: LSU’s Nick Saban ($1.25 million) and Tennessee’s Phillip Fulmer ($1.05 million).

Those salaries raised eyebrows.

“Maybe 30 years from now, they'll be getting $4 million,” former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer predicted to The Oklahoman newspaper.

Switzer was off — by several million. He miscalculated the timeline, too.

Adjusting for inflation, a salary of about $2 million in 2000 would equate to about $3.6 million today. Most Power Four coaching salaries far exceed that figure. Soaring salaries are a byproduct of ballooning media rights revenues, while the athletes continue to not earn wages.

Today, $3.6 million would get you about one-third of a good SEC coach, or if you’re lucky, two SEC coordinators.

Last season, 12 SEC coaches earned at least $6 million. Even Mississippi State’s rookie coach Zach Arnett checked in at $3 million. Saban topped the chart at Alabama ($11.4 million). Coaches who have never appeared in the College Football Playoff are earning more than $9 million.

In the role Spurrier used to fill, Florida’s Billy Napier collected $7.3 million. That’s more than $1 million per Gators victory in 2023. Mercy, what kind of paycheck would Spurrier command today?

Soaring salaries aren’t contained to the SEC. More than 50 coaches earned salaries of at least $4 million last season. Several Group of Five coaches’ salaries exceeded $2 million.

Where there’s money, there will be interested applicants — which is handy, because the offseason coaching carousel twirled like a top, including a few peculiar job changes.

Chief among them, UCLA coach Chip Kelly left to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.

A lazy narrative emerged that college coaches, en masse, were sick of the NIL and transfer realities and sought a life raft.

I don’t buy it. A few notable coaching changes does not equate to an epidemic threatening the industry.

Yes, Saban retired: 72-year-olds tend to do that. Jim Harbaugh parlayed college success for the NFL. Nothing unique about that. Many years ago, Jimmy Johnson, Pete Carroll, Spurrier and Saban jumped from college to the NFL.

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham, 33, pushed back on the sky-is-falling nonsense.

“Don’t give me the, ‘Oh, it’s hard to be a coach right now,' " Dillingham said during a recent radio interview. “Yeah, it’s hard. Then quit.”

Preach, Kenny. Say it louder for the folks in the back.

Job demands are more intense than they were 25 years ago. Coaching staffs are also larger, meaning coaches receive more support. The paycheck is better, too. Substantially better. And that’s what the money is for.

Email of the week

Mike writes: While I like your idea of taking Jimbo Fisher to the “train station,” I don't want him to appear on "Yellowstone.” Lately, everything Jimbo gets near turns into a total failure, and I don't want Jimbo destroying "Yellowstone,” which is one of my favorite TV shows.

My response: If Lainey Wilson can guest star in “Yellowstone,” then there’s room for cowboy Jimbo. Anyway, Season 5 of “Yellowstone” got off to a rough start. Like Jimbo, I think the show is past its prime. But I’ll stick with it to see what Beth Dutton gets up to next.

Three and out

1. Just as I predicted in a recent column, conference commissioners are reportedly debating whether to expand the College Football Playoff from 12 to 14 or 16 teams. What’s next? Perhaps a 34-team playoff, with access restricted to the SEC and Big Ten.

2. At least for the next two seasons, the playoff will feature 12 teams. How many SEC teams will qualify in 2024? I’ll take five. Do I have to name them? Fine. Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, LSU and Missouri.

3.Saban recently told ESPN that “what we have now is not college football” and the term student-athlete “doesn’t exist” anymore. He bemoaned the NIL and transfer climate. Hmm, I think what we have now is a retired coach pining for the past. Back in Saban’s day, I’ll bet he walked to school uphill through the snow. Both ways!

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

The "Topp Rope" is his SEC football column published throughout the USA TODAY Network. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.