Big Ten Coaching Salaries: Where PJ Fleck Ranks

MINNEAPOLIS — It should come to no surprise that Alabama's Nick Saban is the nation's highest-paid college football coach. In the 2018 season, the six-time national championship winner is set to make $8,307,000.

The second-highest paid coach in the nation is Ohio State's Urban Meyer, who recently announced that he will be stepping down from coaching after this year.

Meyer's contract dwarfs the salaries of most other Big Ten coaches, including Minnesota's P.J. Fleck. The second-year Gophers coach will make $3,550,000 in 2018.

Fleck has the 11th-highest salary in the Big Ten, according a USA TODAY database.

Here's how all Big Ten football coach salaries stack up in 2018:

1. Ohio State, Urban Meyer - $7,600,000
2. Michigan, Jim Harbaugh- $7,504,000
3. Nebraska, Scott Frost - $5,000,000
4. Illinois, Lovie Smith - $5,000,000
5. Penn State, James Franklin - $4,800,000
6. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa - $4,700,000
7. Michigan State, Mark Dantonio - $4,390,417
8. Purdue, Jeff Brohm - $3,800,000
9. Wisconsin, Paul Chryst - $3,750,000
10. Northwestern, Pat Fitzgerald - $3,619,775
11. Minnesota, PJ Fleck - $3,550,000
12. Maryland, DJ Durkin (who was fired in October) - $2,512,000
13. Rutgers, Chris Ash - $2,200,000
14. Indiana, Tom Allen - $1,830,000

On Friday, the University of Minnesota and Fleck announced a contract extension that will keep him here through 2024.

The Gophers will play Georgia Tech in the 2018 Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 26 at Ford Field in Detroit. Minnesota became bowl eligible after defeating Wisconsin, 37-15, and reclaiming Paul Bunyan's Axe.

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Photo: Head Coach P.J. Fleck of the Minnesota Golden Gophers watches the game against the Oregon State Beavers at Reser Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Corvallis, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)