Ace Reporter: Better Coaches In Football Or Basketball?

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Few would argue that the SEC is traditionally better in football than basketball.

Even fewer would argue that the SEC traditionally has better football coaches than basketball coaches.

Going into this past football season, five SEC football coaches have won a national championship.

One SEC basketball coach had won a national championship.

And the pay scale is tilted heavily in favor of football.

The average annual pay for the top seven SEC football coaches entering this season was more than $3 million.

Nick Saban, Les Miles, Urban Meyer all make over $3.5 million. Mark
Richt and Bobby Petrino each make over $2.8 million. Phillip Fulmer
averaged $3 million but his successor, Lane Kiffin, comes in making $2
million the first year. Tommy Tuberville made $2.8 million last year.

The average annual pay for the top seven SEC basketball coaches is less
than $2 million. Only Billy Donovan, Billy Gillispie and Bruce Pearl
make over $2 million. In fact, Donovan is the only hoops coach who
ranks among the top eight of football salaries.

We’re going to compare the football and basketball coaches at each SEC
school. For the purpose of this exercise, we’ll take the football coach
from this past season and last season’s basketball coach.

Here’s a look:



Alabama: Saban just won
national coach of the year honors after guiding Alabama to a 12-0
record before losing the SEC Championship. He won two SEC titles and a
national championship at LSU. He is one of the top five coaches in
college football.

Gottfried has had two winning SEC records in 10 years. He has won just
12 SEC games in the past two years combined. He has one SEC title and
he’s on the hot seat.

Advantage: Football.



Auburn: Tommy Tuberville won or
shared the West Division four times in five years, captured one SEC
title and turned in a 13-0 season. Against the other elite SEC teams,
he had the best record of any SEC coach over the past eight years.

Jeff Lebo has had three 4-12 SEC records in four years. He hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament and he’s clearly on the hot seat.

Advantage: Football



Arkansas: Bobby Petrino went
5-7 in his first year with the Hogs, inheriting a weak team from
Houston Nutt. But Petrino did finish strong, beating LSU, and he won 41
games in four years at Louisville.

John Pelphrey was 23-12 in his first year at Arkansas and won an NCAA
tourney game with a talented roster. He made the NCAA field once in
five years at South Alabama. 

Advantage: Football.



Florida: Meyer has won two SEC
titles and a national championship. He was successful at Bowling Green
and Utah before going to Florida. He could win his second national
crown in three years.

Donovan has won two national championships. He has won 20 games 10
years in a row and had a streak of nine consecutive NCAA Tournament
appearances snapped last season.

Advantage: Push.



Georgia: Mark Richt has won two
SEC Championships, was No. 2 in the nation in 2007 and had a streak of
four straight seasons in the top 10. No current SEC coach has achieved
that.

Dennis Felton’s job was on jeopardy until the Bulldogs (4-12 in SEC
play) won the SEC Tournament and made the NCAA field for the first
time. But Felton remains in trouble if his team doesn’t do well this
season.

Advantage: Football.



Kentucky: Rich Brooks guided
the Wildcats to three straight bowls for the first time since 1949-51
when a coach named Bear Bryant patrolled the sidelines in Lexington.
Brooks also had back-to-back eight-win seasons.

Gillispie had great success at UTEP and Texas A&M, orchestrating
remarkable turnarounds. In his first year, Kentucky, after losing at
home to Gardner Webb and San Diego, went 12-4 in the SEC.

Advantage: Basketball.



LSU: Les Miles won 34 games, a
national title and an SEC Championship in his first three seasons. The
Tigers slumped to 7-5 this past season.

John Brady took the Tigers to the 2006 Final Four but he got fired two
seasons later after his team had back-to-back SEC records of 5-11 and
6-10.

Advantage: Football.



Ole Miss: Houston Nutt did a
terrific job in his first season at Ole Miss, guiding the Rebels to an
8-4 record, the Cotton Bowl and the lone victory this season over
top-ranked Florida. Ole Miss won six of its last seven games.

Andy Kennedy was named SEC Coach of the Year his rookie season in
Oxford, but the Rebels didn’t make the NCAA Tournament and he is two
games under .500 in his first two seasons at Ole Miss.

Advantage: Football



Mississippi State: Sly Croom
was the 2007 SEC Coach of the Year when his Bulldogs won eight games,
but his team dropped to four wins and he resigned under fire. Croom was
20 games under .500 in five seasons.

Rick Stansbury is one of the SEC’s most underrated coaches. Folks, it’s
not easy to recruit to Starkville. Stansbury has been to five NCAA
tournaments in the past seven years and he’s won or shared the West
Division four times in 10 seasons as head coach.

Advantage: Basketball



South Carolina

Steve Spurrier is 28-21 and four games below .500 in SEC play in four
years at South Carolina. But his body of work is impressive, especially
at Florida and at Duke. He’s not the coach he used to be, but his teams
are still capable of pulling big upsets.

Dave Odom failed to have a winning SEC record in seven seasons at the
Gamecocks coach. He won two NIT titles but got into the NCAA field only
once.

Advantage: Football



Tennessee: Phillip Fulmer won
two SEC titles and a national championship, but he went 10 years
without either, and after a second losing season in four years, he was
forced out. He was 100 games over .500, no small accomplishment in the
SEC.

Bruce Pearl has done a terrific job in three seasons. He won the SEC
regular-season outright for the first time in 41 years, he won the 2006
East Division over eventual national champion Florida, and he’s
finished ahead of Kentucky three straight seasons. Pearl still has a
job. Fulmer doesn’t.

Advantage: Basketball



Vanderbilt: Bobby Johnson is
recognized as one of the SEC’s better coaches. You wonder how many
people could win as many games at Vanderbilt as he has. Yet, in seven
years, Johnson has yet to go .500 in SEC play, and if Vandy doesn’t win
its bowl game, it will finish with a losing record for the 26th
consecutive year.

Kevin Stallings went to one NCAA Tournament in his first seven seasons
in Nashville, but the Commodores have done better of late, making the
Sweet 16 in 2004 and 2007.

Advantage: Basketball



If you’re keeping score, that’s 7-4-1 in favor of football — and a couple of those nods in basketball are debatable.