Bill Belichick vs. Dabo Swinney contracts: How underachieving UNC, Clemson coaches compare in 2025 salary

Bill Belichick vs. Dabo Swinney contracts: How underachieving UNC, Clemson coaches compare in 2025 salary originally appeared on The Sporting News

On Saturday, the Clemson Tigers travel to Chapel Hill to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels. Although the game looked like a marquee ACC matchup at the start of the season, it has severely lost its luster.

A big reason for that is both teams' underwhelming starts through September. Clemson enters this one at 1-3, with losses to LSU, Georgia Tech and Syracuse. UNC isn't much better at 2-2, with its lone wins coming over non-power schools in Charlotte and Richmond.

Despite the slow starts, both teams' head coaches, Dabo Swinney and Bill Belichick, are among the highest-paid coaches in all of college football. Let's take a peek at both guys' contracts with their respective schools.

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Bill Belichick contract details

Belichick is in the first year of his contract with the Tar Heels. In January 2025, he officially signed a five-year deal with North Carolina. While the contract is set to run five years, only the first three years of his $10 million-per-year base salary are guaranteed.

His contract includes several bonus incentives, such as an extra $200,000 and $250,000 for reaching nine and 10 wins, respectively. Belichick can also earn a $750,000 bonus for participating in the College Football Playoff, as well as $100,000 for participating in the ACC title game.

But there was some drama surrounding Belichick's contract earlier this year. Although he was introduced as UNC's next head coach in Dec. 2024, it was reported in January that his contract remained unsigned.  

According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, Belichick had only signed a term sheet proposal with the Tar Heels. That was interesting, because of the structure of his buyout in the initial six months of his deal. The deal stated that Belichick would owe the school $10 million if he were to leave for another job.

That figure dropped to $1 million after June 1, 2025.  

But about a week after the reports of Belichick's unsigned, it was officially inked by the head coach. The June 1 date came and went over the summer, and Belichick remained UNC's head coach.

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Bill Belichick salary 2025

Belichick will make around $10 million in 2025. His salary includes a base of  $1 million, with an additional $9 million in supplemental income. His contract runs through the 2029 season, although as we mentioned previously, only his first three years are guaranteed. 

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Dabo Swinney contract details

Swinney signed a contract extension back in 2022. According to the Greenville News, he agreed to a new 10-year deal with Clemson worth $115 million.

Swinney has been at Clemson since 2008. In 2007, the head coach who hired him to Clemson's staff, Tommy Bowden, resigned midseason. Swinney took over as interim head coach for the Tigers and led them to a 4-3 finish. He was named the Tigers' full-time head coach at the end of the regular season.

Over the course of his Clemson career, he has won a pair of national titles, in 2016 and 2018, along with an overall record of 181-50. He's also won eight ACC titles over his 18-year coaching tenure.

In his first contract with Clemson, his annual salary was just $800,000. 

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Dabo Swinney salary 2025

His annual salary is $11.13 million, which makes him one of the highest-paid head coaches in the country. Like Belichick, Swinney's contract also includes incentives for winning the conference and making the CFP. Last year, Swinney earned an extra $400,000 in bonuses for winning the ACC and making the 12-team playoff. 

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Highest-paid college football coaches 2025

Here's a look at the highest-paid coaches in the sport. The list is mostly using figures from USA Today, last updated in 2024. But w'vee included updated contract figures from the likes of Ohio State's Ryan Day and Oregon's Dan Lanning and Belichick.