With college football underway and college basketball season tipping off in November, it’s time for CBJ ’s yearly look at the salaries paid to coaches in the UNC System.
Scroll to the bottom of this story to access a searchable database sorted by annual base salary high to low. The database can also be filtered by institution. Because titles and department names aren’t standardized across the UNC System, we created a filtered column called “Sport.” Use that filter to compare compensation for a particular sport across all schools.
Note that some of the coaches may still be collecting salaries related to contracts despite no longer being in their positions. The source for the compensation data is the UNC System general administration. The data is from September.
The numbers here only include what the university pays them. The total compensation for many coaches at the system’s biggest programs is likely much higher; often additional funds come from private sources.
For example, USA Today recently released its list of the highest college football coaching salaries. Alabama’s Nick Saban topped that list of the highest-paid coaches in the sport, earning about $10.7 million this season, followed by Clemson’s Dabo Swinney at $10.5 million and Georgia’s Kirby Smart at $10.25 million.
In February, ESPN reported that both UNC’s [Mack Brown](https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/search/results?q=Mack Brown) and N.C. State’s [Dave Doeren](https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/search/results?q=Dave Doeren) extended their contracts through the 2026 season and are now scheduled to each earn $5 million per season, up from $3.5 million in their previous contracts.
However, in the UNC System database, Doeren is the highest-paid coach with a reported salary of $2.4 million. Brown is seventh with a base salary of $900,000. [Mike Houston](https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/search/results?q=Mike Houston), East Carolina’s head football coach, ranks No. 2 with a base salary of $1.4 million, followed closely by [Kevin Keatts](https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/search/results?q=Kevin Keatts), N.C. State’s head men’s basketball coach, at $1.38 million.
The top-paid coach for the Charlotte 49ers is [Will Healy](https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/search/results?q=Will Healy), head football coach. His base salary is $518,000, up 3% from 2021. [Ron Sanchez](https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/search/results?q=Ron Sanchez), head coach of the men’s basketball team, has a base salary of $461,000.