Shane Beamer poised to get big pay raise ... possibly very big

Shane Beamer ought to invest in a Brinks armored truck.

The second-year head coach is 15-11 in his time at South Carolina. He has brought the program back from the doldrums of the latter days of the Will Muschamp era and came oh so close to a nine-win season in last week’s Gator Bowl loss to No. 21 Notre Dame.

Now, he’s in line for a sizable raise in the near future — possibly as soon as Friday.

The South Carolina board of trustees called a Friday afternoon meeting for its governance committee with one item on the docket: “Approval of Athletics Contracts.”

Beamer — currently on a deal that pays him $2.75 million annually — is the lowest-paid coach among the 13 Southeastern Conference coaches whose contracts are publicly available in USA Today’s college football coach contract database. (Vanderbilt is a private school and, thus, Clark Lea’s deal is not accessible).

That’s likely about to change.

So what should Beamer’s next deal with South Carolina look like? The coaching market (and recent precedent) suggest Beamer could command more than double that $2.75 million figure.

Here’s acloser look at the current market and how things might fall:

Historical context at South Carolina and within the SEC

College football coaching contracts have soared over the past decade. That said, past precedent at South Carolina gives at least a gauge of where Beamer’s new deal might land.

USC athletics spent just under $134 million during the 2022 fiscal year. That ranked ninth among SEC schools and 19th nationally. While not all money for football coaching contracts comes from the university ($1.65 million of Beamer’s current deal is funded outside of athletics) it helps to understand how and what South Carolina might spend.

Steve Spurrier earned just $1.25 million in base salary under the terms of his first deal at South Carolina in 2005. By his final full season in Columbia in 2014, his base salary increased to $4 million.

Muschamp is the closest comparison to Beamer’s situation, given the way coaching contracts have inflated. The former Florida head coach capitalized on a nine-win season in his second year and was given a six-year extension that paid a $4.2 million base salary in 2018 with escalators toward a $5.2 million salary by contract’s end in 2023.

“We’d like to think that six years is just the beginning of how long (Muschamp will) be here,” athletic director Ray Tanner said at the time, “but if he has opportunities because he’s winning 11 or 12 games a year, we would all understand the position it puts him in.”

Muschamp was fired midway through the 2020 season amid a 2-5 start, finishing his time at South Carolina with a 28-30 record.

What rest of SEC, college football says about Beamer’s deal

Recent extensions handed out to coaches within Beamer’s own conference should also help establish a mark for where Tanner, Beamer and USC land — which could fall somewhere between $5 million and $7 million annually.

Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, who was hired one cycle prior to Beamer, received a new contract in November that will pay him $6 million in 2023 and reach as high as $7 million by the end of the deal in 2027, per Gabe DeArmond of PowerMizzou.com.

The former Appalachian State head coach was awarded that deal despite never finishing better than third in the SEC East and boasting a 17-19 record in three years guiding the Tigers.

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman, who worked with Beamer on Kirby Smart’s Georgia staff, also received a significant raise following his second year in Fayetteville — getting a five-year deal that paid $6 million this year (while factoring in a retention bonus).

“I’m incredibly grateful,” Drinkwitz said after his new contract was announced. “It’s the belief in how we’re doing it and the direction we’re going, and I really appreciate that belief. ... I talked about it a couple of weeks ago: I really feel like we’ve improved in a lot of ways. The results will come.”

Beamer’s current deal also pales in comparison to some of the SEC’s most recent hires. Zach Arnett, who replaced Mike Leach at Mississippi State last month following Leach’s sudden death, will be paid a first-year base salary of $3 million. Hugh Freeze’s first deal at Auburn is also slated to pay him $6 million.

More broadly, Beamer’s current pay falls on the lower end of his Power Five and Top 25 compatriots.

The 14 coaches with publicly available deals whose squads ranked between No. 11 and 25 in the College Football Playoff’s final set of rankings before the postseason were compensated an average of $4.125 million in 2022, per USA Today’s coaching database.

Beamer was paid less money than 12 of those 14 coaches of ranked teams. The only men he made more than (UTSA’s Jeff Traylor and South Alabama’s Kane Wommack) coach at Group of Five programs. Beamer’s 2022 salary also ranked the fourth-lowest among the 69 Power Five football schools.

The 2020-21 hiring cycle, which brought Beamer to Columbia, has also had its own share of coaches who’ve received pay bumps.

Four of the seven Power Five head coaches hired during that cycle have already received raises, averaging salaries of $4.71 million for the 2023 season. That number should continue to climb depending on Josh Heupel’s contract situation at Tennessee. Heupel — who Beamer shared the Steve Spurrier first-year national coach of the year award with in 2021 — was bumped up to a $5 million salary in September, but is likely to get another deal following the Volunteers’ 11-2 finish in 2022.

“Coaches say a lot of things at a lot of different schools,” Tanner said in a December interview on 107.5 The Game. “They’re quotable. But when (Beamer) tells you something, I believe what he says and how happy he is to be here with his family. I think that’s real and that’s very important. It’s also important we do right in an administrative role and I do my job as well. We’ve still got room to grow. I’m biased, but I think he’s one of the best.”

What’s next for Shane Beamer’s contract at South Carolina?

Beamer will more than likely be paid handsomely for the work he’s done over the previous two years in the not-too-distant future, perhaps this week. Whether USC leaders take Beamer close to — or beyond — the $6 million mark remains to be seen.

Reaching a bowl game in 2021 was a major step in a year South Carolina was picked to finish sixth in the SEC East. The regular season-ending wins over No. 5 Tennessee and No. 8 Clemson this fall, too, will be remembered around Columbia long after Beamer is gone.

“Very few people, I think, thought in 2021 that we’d finish the season in a bowl game, and we finished the season in a bowl game, in a bowl victory in Charlotte last year,” Beamer said following last week’s Gator Bowl loss. “... We had a tough schedule this year and people didn’t think we may make a bowl game this year. Not only did we get in a bowl game, we’ve won eight games and were nationally ranked coming into this game. We’ve made a ton of progress, and it’s just the beginning.”

Multiple sources with knowledge of the process told The State that discussions around extending and increasing Beamer’s contract have been happening for months, eventually getting tabled over the summer. Those talks eventually resumed this fall and have been ongoing.

“Certainly, there’s more conversations to be had with Coach Beamer,” Tanner said following a Dec. 13 board of trustees meeting. “And, as I said, there are ongoing conversations about Coach Beamer’s future.”

Those conversations may not be ongoing much longer.