By now, the entire world knows the Clemson Tigers embarrassed the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the 2019 College Football Playoff national championship. It happened for a few reasons, and the 44-16 final score put head coach Dabo Swinney in an even higher tax bracket with an insane postseason bonus check.
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Of course, Clemson University President James P. Clements and Athletic Director Dan Radakovich didn't mind cutting this check. After all, Swinney earned it, and the national title certainly gives every Tigers fan the memory of a lifetime. However, the amount he received for winning a few big college football games will make you want to change your job.
After downing Pittsburgh in the 2018 ACC Championship Game, torching Notre Dame at the Cotton Bowl and upsetting Alabama at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, Swinney took home a whopping $850,000 in bonuses in addition to his $6.2 million salary.
Dabo Swinney Bonus Checks
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To break it down, Swinney earned $50,000 for playing in the ACC Championship Game and then received another $150,000 for the 42-10 victory at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Then, Swinney received $200K for making it to the College Football Playoff and another $200K for the 30-3 semifinal beatdown the Tigers gave to the Fighting Irish at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
How about Clemson football beating the Crimson Tide in the CFP title game? Another cool $250K.
Swinney officially made over $7 million for the 2018 college football season, which is over 1,100 percent more than what he made as a graduate assistant at Alabama over 25 years ago.
Seriously, though. Clemson's Dabo Swinney, who won the ACC Coach of the Year award for the second time last season, almost made four times more in a day right now than he did for the entire year at his alma mater in the SEC back in 1993? That's just crazy to think about.
Only Nick Saban (Alabama), Urban Meyer (Ohio State), Jim Harbaugh (Michigan), Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M), Gus Malzahn (Auburn), and Kirby Smart (Georgia) had a higher base salary in 2018, according to USA Today Sports records.
That also doesn't include his new contract in 2019, which bumped his base salary up to $9 millioin, or any of the other perks aand bonuses he's made for making the CFP the last few seasons.
It pays well to be a great NCAA football coach, and there's no doubt Swinney smiled all the way to his South Carolina bank to deposit his bonus check after that national championship game victory.
Whether Clemson beats LSU or not, it will happen again this summer, too.
It's safe to say Swinney could buy a nice mansion with just his bonus checks alone.
This post was originally published on January 8, 2019.
