Great stuff today in USA Today regarding the increasing salaries of college football coaches. College football is HUGE business and coaches are now being paid like CEO's. Four coaches — Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, Alabama's Nick Saban, Florida's Urban Meyer and Iowa's Kirk Ferentz — have salaries paying them in excess of $3M per season and this year the average salary of the 120 major college football coaches hit the $1M mark.

At least 50 coaches are making seven figures, seven more than a year ago. At least a dozen are pulling down $2 million or more, up from nine in 2006. Last season, Stoops was the only one making more than $3 million.

Other interesting tidbits provided by USA Today:

- The average salary for a head football coach in the SEC is $1.9M - tops for any conference in the nation. The Big 12 is second at $1.6M and the Big 10 is third at $1.5M.

- There is also a "cost per win" section. Minnesota had the most expensive cost per win ratio. The Golden Gophers won only 1 game this season, under coach Tim Brewster, which equates to $1M per win. Alabama, who is paying Nick Saban $4M, is second on the list with each win costing them a bit over $583K.

- According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the median total compensation for 182 Presidents and Chancellors of public research universities and university systems was “a little more than $397,000 annually.

- When you are looking at the list of salaries, make sure to click on the far right hand column to download the PDF of the coach's actual contract with his university. Some fascinating tidbits in those contracts. I highly recommend reading Nick Saban's contract with Alabama - amazing the perks these coaches receive.

SEC Commissioner and BCS Coordinator Michael Slive is schedule to join me for the December 15/16 edition of Sports Business Radio and we will defintiely discuss these numbers amongst other topics.