COACH Act: capping college coach salaries at 10x their university’s tuition and fees
When baseball player Babe Ruth was asked to justify out-earning President Herbert Hoover, Ruth replied: “I had a better year.”
What the bill does
The COACH Act would cap a college coach’s salary at 10x their university’s tuition rate and fees.
Preexisting contracts would be grandfathered in until they expire. So if a coach signed a five-year contract extension before this bill was enacted, it would still apply for the remainder of that duration. But once it was done, this bill would take over.
The bill’s acronym COACH stands for Correcting Opportunity and Accountability in Collegiate Hiring.
Despite the bill’s title, the COACH Act, it would technically apply to any university athletics department employee. Although, in practice, it would primarily – if not exclusively – apply to coaches, particularly for football and men’s basketball.
This bill was at first part of a larger piece of legislation, the Restore College Sports Act, which would feature several reforms including creating a new organization called the American Collegiate Sports Association to replace the NCAA.
Originally introduced in April 2025, the lead sponsor broke this provision out as its own separate legislation that October.
How much would salaries be slashed?
Last season, University of Georgia football coach Kirby Smart was the highest-paid college coach in the country at $13.2 million. In the current school year, Georgia in-state residents’ tuition and fees total $11,628.
So under this bill, Coach Smart’s salary would be capped at $116,280 – a full -99% drop.
Sure, the numbers could perhaps be fudged a little bit: whether you count things like on-campus housing, undergraduate versus graduate school tuition, and for public universities whether you measure in-state versus out-of-state tuition.
But the general principle still applies: no matter how you crunch the numbers, likely no coach would cross the million-dollar salary mark.
Context
In around 40 of the 50 states, the highest-paid state employee is a public university football or basketball coach.
(In the few states where it’s not, the highest-paid public employee is usually either a college president, medical school dean, or in one case even a medical school plastic surgeon.)
Last year, the three highest-paid college football coaches were the Georgia Bulldogs’ Kirby Smart at $13.2 million, the Ohio State Buckeyes’ Ryan Day at $12.5 million, and the USC Trojans’ Lincoln Riley at $11.5 million.
Meanwhile, the three highest-paid college basketball coaches were the Kansas Jayhawks’ Bill Self at $8.8 million, the UConn Huskies’ Dan Hurley at $8.0 million, and the Arkansas Razorbacks’ John Calipari at $7.7 million.
(Even though the actual March Madness champion, the Michigan Wolverines’ Dusty May, only ranked #37 at $3.7 million.)
What supporters say
Supporters argue that the price of college athletics has spiraled out of control, requiring federal intervention.
“Even in professional sports, cost controls exist,” lead House sponsor Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA5) said in a press release. “Salary caps operate within narrow antitrust frameworks recognized by Congress and the courts.”
The bill “is a simple guardrail to bring sanity back to the financial management of college sports, [creating] a narrow, lawful path for schools to set reasonable limits on coaches’ pay,” Rep. Baumgartner continued. “It’s time for Congress to step in to restore sanity to college sports.”
What opponents say
Some opponents counter that salary caps shouldn’t exist at all, that the free market economic system best decides pay rates. These same people defend Elon Musk’s new Tesla pay package that could potentially make him the world’s first trillionaire.
But even opponents who agree that college coach salaries have gotten too high may disagree that Congress should solve it.
“College football coach salaries are out of control,” The Athletic sports columnist Ian O’Connor wrote in November. “But this is not a cause for grandstanding politicians — it’s a fight for university administrators. They should take responsibility in an era of the run-amok Supercoach that needs to end now.”
What happens next
The bill has been referred to the House Education and the Workforce Committee, but has not yet attracted any cosponsors, from either party.
The aforementioned larger Restore College Sports Act has not yet attracted any cosponsors either.