Florida Coaches Raking In The Cash

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – College athletics has become a multi-billion dollar operation and the biggest winners aren't the players, but the coaches who lead the football teams.

USAToday.com put together a database of the salaries of all of the football coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision, what used to be Division I. The numbers range from $400,000 to as much as $3 million in the Sunshine State.

Combined, the head coaches of the major universities in Florida, excluding Miami, make just less than $9.96 million per season in pay from their institutions, and that doesn't include the potential for bonuses.

The highest paid head football coach in the Sunshine State is Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp. The former Texas defensive coordinator earns a cool $3.2 million in salary from the school and can also qualify for up to $450,000 in bonuses each season.

On the other end of the spectrum is Florida Atlantic head coach Howard Schnellenberger. The legendary coach makes $400,405 per season and can achieve a maximum bonus of $115,000.

Just above Schnellenberger is Florida International head coach Mario Cristobal who earns just less than $500,000 a year.

But, when looking at what the coaches can bring into an athletic department, the numbers are startling. Consider the University of Florida's 2010 performance in football, which was a sub-par season.

In 2010, the football team had revenues of $68,715,750 and had expenses of $24,457,557, which translates to a profit of roughly $44,258,193. That means that Muschamp's salary is less than one percent of the overall football budget.

Still, in a time of global recession, declining wages, and economic collapse, the salaries are a hard sell on most of the faculty members at the institutions.

The bigger question is for Florida, where does the $44 million in profits from the football team end up?