FSU football salaries rank high in ACC but lag behind Clemson, SEC, Big Ten

With questions looming about Florida State's commitment to football and the financial hurdles facing the athletics department, the Seminoles continue to be among the biggest spenders in the Atlantic Coast Conference when it comes to coaches' salaries.

The Seminoles do lag far behind conference leader Clemson, however. And there is a growing disparity between what the ACC spends on coaches, compared to the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten, according to the USA Today's coaching salaries database, which was updated this month.

Head coach Mike Norvell's scheduled salary of $4 million in 2020 barely ranks in the top 25 percent of all FBS head coaches -- with most of the highest-paid coaches coming from those two aforementioned leagues. Meanwhile, the salary pool for FSU's assistant coaches ranks second in the ACC and a very respectable 15th nationally.

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As a group, the Seminoles' 10 assistant coaches made $5,355,750 for this contract year.

That is well below Clemson, which leads the conference with a $7.64 million payroll for assistant coaches, but it's more than each of other public universities in the league. (Private schools such as Boston College, Syracuse and Miami do not have to disclose salaries as public records.)

Based on the terms of his contract, Norvell was scheduled to rank 30th nationally in salary this year. But after taking a voluntary reduction to offset losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Norvell actually will end up making just over $3.5 million, which ranks 39th.

His pay for 2020 is about 30 percent less than former head coach Willie Taggart's previous deal, which called for $5 million per year.

With his reduced salary, Norvell sits fifth in the ACC behind Dabo Swinney ($8.26 million) at Clemson, Justin Fuente ($4.25 million) at Virginia Tech, Pat Narduzzi ($4.08 million) at Pitt, and Bronco Mendenhall ($3.84 million) at Virginia.

What might be most alarming to FSU fans is how low those numbers compare to head coaches in the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten -- the two conferences that have the richest television contracts.

Norvell's original salary would rank 12th in the Southeastern Conference; it falls to 13th when the pandemic reduction is taken into account. His deal would tie for 11th in the Big Ten.

FSU's assistant coaches -- as a staff -- fare better much from a national perspective.

The Seminoles don't have one of the nation's 50 highest-paid coordinators individually, but they rank 15th overall in staff compensation (not including private schools, such as Notre Dame, Miami, etc).

As a group, FSU's assistants would rank fourth in the Big Ten and ninth in the SEC.

When it comes to individual contracts, Florida State's highest-paid assistant, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller, made $788,000 from a scheduled $800,000. That ranks 55th nationally.

For comparison, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables ranks fourth at nearly $2.2 million after taking a $240,000 reduction. Tigers offensive coordinator Tony Elliott made $1.52 million.

Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham made $1.81 million, while the Gators paid their assistant coaches $6.3 million as a staff.

USA Today also charted salaries for football strength coaches, and FSU's Josh Storms ranked fifth in the ACC at $300,000 per year. Clemson led the conference in pay for that position at $600,000, while Florida pays $450,000.

Here's a breakdown of the assistant coaches' salary pools for each school in the ACC and SEC that reported numbers.

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