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Where Victory is Vetted

The only unified data and analytics platform in college athletics covering compensation, staffing, spending, budgeting, performance, contracts and candidate intelligence together.

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Inside AD Vantage · as of Oct 19

in head coach buyouts on the books
$4.09B
head coach contracts end within 12 months
586
staff profiles on the platform
83,828

Curt Cignetti

Head Coach • Football
Indiana

CoachEffect™#1 of 186 football head coaches with a CoachEffect score

CoachEffect™ 84.09

Performance window 2024–2026Baseline 2019–2023

96.7

Performance score

Recency-weighted rankings across the performance window.

71.5

Baseline improvement

Current performance window versus the previous 5 years.

Indiana SRS rating ranklower is better

Baseline avg61.2
Perf. window avg5.7

CoachEffect measures the most recent SRS rating seasons, weighted toward recent years, against the seasons immediately before (2019–2023). Those earlier seasons count even if the coach was not there for them.

Current year guaranteed
Max incentives+$3.55M
Pay rank#1 of 187Football head coaches with a published salary

Live buyout 2025 contract year

Staff → University$15MFixed for the term
University → Staff$94.71MDeclines daily

Top basketball guarantee

$8.25M

Dan Hurley, UConn

Largest athletics revenue

$352.55M

Texas

Widest athletics deficit

-$47.19M

Rutgers

Highest live buyout

$94.71M

Curt Cignetti, Indiana · University to Staff

Departments and conferences on the platform: Stony Brook, North Texas, Georgia, Eastern Michigan, Boise State, Coastal Carolina, Indiana State, Clemson, Charlotte, Lamar, Kennesaw State, Mountain West, Bowling Green, North Florida, Nebraska, Tulane, Eastern Kentucky, Western Michigan, Utah State, Georgia State, Drake, Louisville, Wichita State, North Alabama, Missouri State, South Carolina, Kent State, Fresno State.

Departments & conferences on the platform

Leaderboards

The top fifty in football, men's basketball and athletic directors. Guaranteed pay, both directions of the buyout, and where each program ranks. The rest of Division I sits in the platform.

Top 50 Football Head Coaches by Guaranteed Pay

Top 50 Football Head Coaches by Guaranteed Pay
CoachSchoolConfGuaranteedStaff → Univ.Univ. → StaffSP+
1Curt CignettiIndianaBig Ten
2Lane KiffinLSUSEC
3Kirby SmartGeorgiaSEC
4Ryan DayOhio StateBig Ten
5Kalen DeBoerAlabamaSEC
6Matt RhuleNebraskaBig Ten
8mmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm$88.8m$8.8m$88m#88
8mmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm$88.88m$8m$88.88m#8
8mmmm mmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm mmm$88m$88m$88.88m#88
88mmmm mmmmmmmmm m&mmmm$88.88m$88m$88.88m#88
44 more head coaches are locked

Enter your institutional email to see all 50. One address unlocks every table on the page.

Analyze Finances

Export the full FRS picture and take it with you. Department totals or sport-level detail, revenue against expense, margin in the same view. Get off and running to build the view you need, faster than ever.

Whole-department revenue vs. expense, FY2025

Conference
Whole-department revenue against expense. Revenue is the left bar of each pair, expense the right; where the right bar clears the left, that department ran an operating deficit.
$0M$100M$200M$300M$400M
  1. TexasNet -$23.34M
    Revenue$352.55M
    Expenses$375.89M
  2. TennesseeNet +$15.93M
    Revenue$304.12M
    Expenses$288.19M
  3. AlabamaNet +$32.7M
    Revenue$267.44M
    Expenses$234.74M
  4. Texas A&MNet +$7.2M
    Revenue$235.55M
    Expenses$228.35M
  5. GeorgiaNet -$6.61M
    Revenue$233.53M
    Expenses$240.14M

Total revenue $3.36BTotal expenses $3.36B

RevenueExpenses

Source: NCAA membership financial reporting, FY2025.

Market Value

Public contracts are open records. Every competitor works from the same filings. Private universities release nothing comparable, just a headline number through EADA and the 990, years late, with no contract behind it. So everyone else drops them. A comp set without Notre Dame, Southern California, Miami, Duke and Stanford is missing the top of the market. We didn't.

  • We price every coach on the staff, not just the one at the top of it. An associate head coach, a coordinator and a position coach each get their own market value, built from their own tier of the model rather than scaled down from what the head coach earns.
  • Some of these numbers exist nowhere else. A Southern California assistant head coach and co-offensive coordinator prices at $1.10M, and the offensive line coach beside him at $632K. Neither figure appears in a public filing anywhere.
  • The model is tiered by sport as well as by role. Football head coaches, coordinators and position coaches each move through a different one, and so do hockey, lacrosse and equestrian, each with its own comparables and its own inflation basis.
  • Volleyball is covered as closely as football is, and a defensive coordinator as closely as the head coach who hired them.

Nicki Collen

Head Coach • Women's Basketball
Baylor University

Private institutionProgram spend 98th %ile

AD Vantage market value

$1.6M

Estimate range $1.2M – $2M · 2026

How $1.6M is built

Baylor's women's basketball program spends in the 98th percentile of Division I. Comparable coaches at similar programs with known salaries average $1.2M.

Comparable coaches behind the $1.6M estimate
Comparable coachYrSalaryCEMatch
BaylorNicki Collenthis coach'26$1.60M62.2—
GonzagaLisa Fortier'23$684K78.681%
Oregon StateScott Rueck'25$1.00M65.371%
South FloridaJose Fernandez'24$775K71.069%
LouisvilleJeff Walz'24$1.00M72.069%
GeorgiaKatie Abrahamson-Henderson'23$999K78.768%

Career history, performance, school metrics and cost of living, 50+ datapoints in all, place her $47K below that average.

AD Vantage AI Plugin

Any connector can hand an agent a spreadsheet. Ours hands it executed contracts, verified salaries, and a date against every figure. Same prompt, same agent. Watch what changes.

You

Provide the top 5 highest paid DI public school head coaches in women's soccer in guaranteed pay. Also provide their max incentives. Lastly, include the programs RPI trajectory over the last 3 seasons.

AD Vantage · 1m 34s · Guaranteed pay

  1. 1Keidane McAlpineGeorgia$402,000
    Max incentives
    See bonus schedule
    RPI 2023 → 2025
    9→43→44
    Source
    Aug 3, 2026 · salary verif.
  2. 2Brian PenskyFlorida State$400,000
    Max incentives
    $128,000
    RPI 2023 → 2025
    1→4→2
    Source
    Mar 23, 2026 · salary verif.
  3. 3Margueritte AozasaTexas$350,000
    Max incentives
    $129,500
    RPI 2023 → 2025
    20→19→179
    Source
    Jun 4, 2026 · contract doc.
  4. 4Colby HaleArkansas$335,000
    Max incentives
    $137,500
    RPI 2023 → 2025
    12→6→29
    Source
    Jul 31, 2026 · salary verif.
  5. 5Bobby ShuttleworthTexas A&M$291,667
    Max incentives
    $85,000
    RPI 2023 → 2025
    34→68→86
    Source
    Feb 23, 2026 · contract doc.

The same prompt, without AD Vantage

Same prompt, same agent. With AD Vantage it answered in 1m 34s, every figure dated. Without it, it searched for 5m 21s and returned nothing.

Time
General AI5m 21s
AD Vantage1m 34s
Answer
General AI0 of 5 rows delivered
AD Vantage5 of 5 rows delivered
Sources
General AI29 websites searched
AD Vantage1 source of truth
Verified
General AINo verification date
AD VantageEvery figure timestamped

You, in the same thread

Let’s look at annualized TCV when it comes to base and supplemental over the life of current contract. You can also include signing bonus and retention payments in this.

AD Vantage · Annualized contract value

  1. 1Keidane McAlpineGeorgia$410,028
    Contract TCV
    $2,426,000
    Term
    Feb 1, 2024 to Dec 31, 2029
  2. 2Brian PenskyFlorida State$401,818
    Contract TCV
    $1,841,667
    Term
    Jun 1, 2022 to Dec 31, 2026
  3. 3Colby Haleup one placeArkansas$355,000
    Contract TCV
    $1,775,000
    Term
    Jan 1, 2026 to Dec 31, 2030
  4. 4Margueritte Aozasadown one placeTexas$350,000
    Contract TCV
    ≈$2,192,000
    Term
    Nov 25, 2025 to Feb 29, 2032
  5. 5Nate Lienew to the top fiveKansas$319,000
    Contract TCV
    $1,595,000
    Term
    Jan 1, 2026 to Dec 31, 2030

The general agent's run is an actual transcript from a general-purpose LLM without the AD Vantage AI Plugin; the other is the same prompt against the plugin. Timings as recorded.

With AD Vantage, five verified answers in 1m 34s. Without it, the same agent found none in 5m 21s.

AD Vantage AI Plugin
Which answer

Prompt

Provide the top 5 highest paid DI public school head coaches in women's soccer in guaranteed pay. Also provide their max incentives. Lastly, include the programs RPI trajectory over the last 3 seasons.

Follow-up, same thread

Let’s look at annualized TCV when it comes to base and supplemental over the life of current contract. You can also include signing bonus and retention payments in this.

Without AD Vantage

5m 21s

#CoachGuar. payMax inc.RPI 23→24→25
1not found
2not found
3not found
4not found
5not found

I cannot responsibly produce the national top five because public payroll records often exclude guaranteed supplemental compensation, signing/retention payments, and contract incentives.

No rows returned. At the moment, giving five names would require guessing at the ranking.

No ranking to refine. Not asked here. There was no ranking on the table to refine, and none of these fields exist in the sources this run reached.

Searched 29 websites · 5m 21s0 of 5 rows delivered · No verification date
  1. Identified top women’s soccer coaches and trends
  2. Catalog lookup hit a connector error
  3. Searched 15 websites
  4. Searched 14 websites
  5. Extracting compensation details from PDF

With the AD Vantage AI Plugin

1m 34s

#CoachGuar. payMax inc.RPI 23→24→25
1Keidane McAlpineGeorgia$402,000Aug 3, 2026 · salary verifiedSee bonus schedule94344
2Brian PenskyFlorida State$400,000Mar 23, 2026 · salary verified$128,000142
3Margueritte AozasaTexas$350,000Jun 4, 2026 · contract$129,5002019179
4Colby HaleArkansas$335,000Jul 31, 2026 · salary verified$137,50012629
5Bobby ShuttleworthTexas A&M$291,667Feb 23, 2026 · contract$85,000346886

Ranked by guaranteed pay across DI public women’s soccer head coaches. Each figure carries the executed contract or verified salary it came from, and the date it was verified.

5 of 5 rows returned. Max incentives from executed contract terms; RPI for 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Re-ranked in the same thread. Annualized TCV over each current contract, base and supplemental, with signing and retention payments counted where the contract has them. Two coaches moved and one is new to the top five.

3 tool calls · 1m 34s5 of 5 rows delivered · Every figure timestamped
  1. Queried AD Vantage compensation records, filtered to DI public women’s soccer
  2. Ranked by guaranteed pay, joined max incentive terms from executed contracts
  3. Attached RPI for 2023, 2024 and 2025 with verification dates

The general agent's run is an actual transcript from a general-purpose LLM without the AD Vantage AI Plugin; the other is the same prompt against the plugin. Timings as recorded.

Available in ChatGPT

Find AD Vantage in the ChatGPT plugin store.

Add AD Vantage from ChatGPT's own plugin directory and sign in with your AD Vantage account. Every answer comes from the same verified, dated records as the platform.

Open in ChatGPT (opens in a new tab)

Specialized Reports

Two samples of reports that showcase the depth of our data and unlocked visibility when all of it is layered together. Whether you are taking over a new department or continuing to lead one, see what our data can unlock for you.

Sample report

Athletics Landscape Report

A true first 90 days briefing for an incoming AD to give them visibility into the overall financial, performance, and staffing pictures of their new department.

34 pages

AD Vantage · Athletics Landscape Report

Athletics Landscape Report — August 2026

Outside-advisory data compilation · data as of 2026-08-05

Prepared for the Director of Athletics of a Division I department

Contents

  1. How to read this report
  2. Department at a glance
  3. Sport performance
  4. Compensation and contract position
  5. Staffing
  6. Revenue generation
  7. Investment in women's and men's programs
  8. Pattern recognition
  9. Appendix — full peer tables

1. How to read this report

Two schools in the conference are private. They file no FRS financials and have zero compensation records. Every financial and compensation comparison in this report is n=16, not n=18.

33 more pages in the full sample.Nine sections and full peer tables. No recommendations, just sourced, dated benchmarks.

Open the sample

AD department review

A full read on one department: sport-by-sport performance, spending position, staffing pools, and the coaches an AD hired against the ones they inherited.

15 sports

AD Vantage · AD Department Review

A Division I athletic department

One department against the median of the conference it plays in

AD since January 2022 · FRS reporting year 2024–25

$41.93MTotal revenue
$44.91MTotal expenses
−$2.98MNet revenue
54.83Avg CoachEffect

Department revenue

Department revenue against the conference median
Metric20252024YoYConf. med.vs conf.
Ticket sales$1,826,074$1,587,049+15.1%$806,168+126.5%
Contributions / donations$4,654,125$6,318,977−26.3%$2,139,313+117.6%
Media rights———$84,000—

Department expenses

Coaching salaries, support staff and operating expense by sport, each against the conference median and the department's own prior year.

Fifteen sports, sport by sport.Hired-by-AD versus inherited CoachEffect, cost per win, cost per athlete, spend rank against performance rank.

Open the sample

Let us build a report for you

Interested in generating a custom report for you or your department? Let us know what parameters you need and we'll deliver it to your inbox — the first one's on the house. Already a client? Reach out to get yours today.

For Division I institutions and conference offices.

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Select your reports

Trusted by athletics departments and conferences nationwide

Forty-two Division I departments since October 2025.

Athletics departments and conference offices use AD Vantage to benchmark compensation and staffing, plan budgets against their competitive set, and stand behind the figures they present to a president or a board.

42Division I departments served
October 2025Platform launch
1 yearSince launch