What makes a good job in college football?
It’s a question that is more relevant than ever as the coaching carousel spins, potentially to record heights in 2025 with 10 FBS coaches already axed and plenty more firmly on the hot seat.
While not all things are guaranteed when it comes to winning in college football, the fewer obstacles there are on and off the field tend to make for a clearer path to success.
Here, we take a look at each of the Power 4 conferences and which jobs are better than others in a bit of a vacuum. Recruiting base, donor support, NIL, school leadership, staff salary pool, historic success and facilities were factored in. The result is the coaching job pyramid, from the best gig in each league down to the stepping-stone jobs that make up the base.
First, we looked at the ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten.
Finally, it’s on to the league where it just means more (great jobs): the SEC. The most competitive conference in the country is also the one which has more places where you can win a national championship at.
Given the money involved, the level of support and even the passion of the fans, there is an excellent case that any upper-half gig in the SEC is capable of winning it all and qualifies as a great job. The entire conference is one giant, fertile recruiting ground and there are seemingly endless NIL opportunities available to lure additional players.
That’s not to paint a picture of everything being rosy however. As was the case this year, the pressure to win can be enormous. The fans obsess over everything you do, from the third-down offense to how well your backup linebackers are performing. There are media obligations that others simply don’t have to deal with, from both the size of the press corps showing up at every game to the often inane questions getting asked.
But hey, that’s what the money’s for and nobody sets the bar high for that quite like the SEC from the head coaching level down to position coaches.
So how does every coaching job in the SEC stack up against each other? The answer generally is pretty favorably but each with enough subtle differences to create some separation.
The best job: Georgia
It’s taken an alum like Kirby Smart to truly unlock what Georgia is capable of, but this is one of the best jobs in the country. They have the best recruiting footprint, both within their state and in the region, have excellent alignment and are one of the best supported programs in the league. The facilities are not mind-blowing compared to some but plenty good enough and you get to live in one of the great college towns of the South. No wonder they’ve made it down the road to Atlanta seven of the last eight years for the SEC title game.
Elite: Texas, Alabama, LSU
You’re splitting hairs with the Bulldogs and the ordering of this upper-tier group, which doubles as some of the best gigs in the entire country. All have large, passionate fan bases, excellent access to talent and pretty much everything you could ask for in terms of resources and support. The differentiation factor might well come down to personal preference if you were a head coach, though all deal with some level of booster meddling that is part of the reason why some fail to take advantage of the jobs and others navigate things well enough to win big.
Quasi-elite: Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee, Auburn
These are just a tick behind the above-listed jobs for a variety of reasons, but otherwise are just as good a spot to win a national title at. With the exception of Oklahoma, the lack of historic alignment at each place is certainly a factor in knocking them down a rung—with constant turnover when it comes to athletic directors or school presidents dotting every campus the past two decades which have hampered efforts on the field. Still, there are great stadiums to play in, tons of talent nearby and a proven track record of being a contender (three of the five having won it all in the past 25 years).
The base: Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State
These may be jobs that are in the bottom half of the SEC, but they’re still good gigs. You can even argue that relative to expectations, a place like Kentucky is one of the best jobs around given that you’ll be well compensated as a head coach but won’t face the pressure to win a conference or national title with any regularity like is the case with others. What does make life difficult is sustaining success given inherent limitations—be it from a brand standpoint to simple investment in the program lagging behind others. You can have a good year or two at a place like Arkansas or South Carolina, but you’ll still not be capable (at least historically) of turning that into the type of run that gets you a statue built outside the stadium. That’s just life in the SEC where every game, and every recruiting battle, is extremely tough.
More College Football on Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s new college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ranking SEC Football Coaching Jobs: Is There a Bad Gig Among Well-Resourced Schools?.