Despite the fact that the Nebraska football team has seen some impressive investments in the coaching staff and even those in the “front office,” athletic director Troy Dannen knows that the Huskers are still trailing some of the top Big Ten teams.
Despite being behind the biggest and baddest programs in the conference, Dannen told the Omaha World-Herald that he understands NU is trending in the right direction. It’s all about keeping that momentum.
Nebraska football has to invest more in staff salaries
Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule leads the way with a record salary of more than $8 million this season. Rhule and his primary 13 are scheduled to make $17.25 million total in 2025, that’s almost $7 million more than Scott Frost and his last staff.
“We have not lost anybody we’ve wanted due to salary,” Dannen told the paper in a recent interview. “When we’ve needed to invest more, we’ve invested more.”
And yet, Dannen knows that there are Big Ten programs that are paying more to their staff. That includes Iowa, who shape up to be a rival to the Huskers in several different ways every year.
The Big Ten biggies still outpacing Nebraska football
Last year, Iowa paid Kirk Ferentz and his main assistants $19.2 million. Washington a new addition to the Big Ten, paid out $18.9 million. Ohio State is expected to pay out more than $30 million after winning a national title.
Over the 2023-24 season, Michigan paid out $20.4 million to the staff. That number could drop a bit this year with Harbaugh gone and the Wolverines shuffling staff. Penn State was also over $20 million.
The Huskers have already shown they’re willing to invest more considering that But Nebraska’s 2023-2024 salary figure Rhule and 10 assistants, was $12.9 million. Slightly more than Maryland, at $12.8 million but trailing Rutgers ($17 million), Minnesota ($15.8 million) and Wisconsin ($14.5 million), among others.
Dannen credited his predecessor, Trev Alberts for starting to invest more money in the Nebraska football coaching staff, but he clearly doesn’t believe it’s enough. One of the most interesting things to watch is how all of this shakes out when programs have to factor in revenue sharing to their budgets. Costs across the board are only going up.