College Football Power 5 Head Coach tier rankings

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When ranking coaches, it is always best to remember any head coach in the Power 5 is considered at the top of their field. It is a relative discussion as a “below average” power 5 head coach is still a fantastic coach in the grand scheme of things. The very elite class of Power 5 coaches really separate themselves for a variety of reasons. The criteria used for this ranking was a variety of total wins, important wins, championships (conference and national), recruiting, longevity, and place of success. A head coach will get more credit for having a winning resume at Wisconsin rather than prior success at Utah State. The more recent the success for the coach, the more impactful it would be to the ranking. Someone like Chip Kelly will get credit for success at Oregon, but it also needs understood the game has evolved since that time. However, a national championship will always be the most impactful regardless of when it occurred. Someone like David Shaw will get credit for winning under “unusual conditions” as you would at Stanford. As with all rankings there will be disagreements, but it felt important to really separate the elite and below average coaches from the middle. Let us jump right into the controversy

Data:

*A=Elite(Red) B=Good(Green) C= Average(Blue) D=Below Average(Yellow)

* A=10 points B=7 points C=5 points D=2 points

Big Ten

SEC

ACC

Big 12

PAC 12

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Raw Data:

Analysis:

The big ten has the highest rating and ranking, as they are one of the three conferences with multiple elite coaches. They have multiple elite coaches as well as one of the deepest in terms of good or better ranking coaches.

The separating factor between the Big Ten and SEC was the difference in the “bottom” of the conference. The SEC has a few new coaches with less experience which ultimately hurt the overall grade, even with the best overall coach in the country in Nick Saban. The biggest contrast between top and bottom of the conference was the Pac-12. The inexperience in the tail end of the conference does hurt the overall grade.

Conclusions:

It should be no surprise the Big Ten, ACC, and SEC lead the charge here as 6 of the 8 Elite coaches are in these three conferences. There was a concerted effort to separate the coaches in the top and bottom and this led to a few worthy coaches maybe not getting a ranking some felt they deserved. Someone like Kirby Smart or Dan Mullen are top coaches in the league, however lack of championships ultimately kept them out of the elite group. This can also be the case for the coaches in the “below average” grouping. Most of these coaches are labeled this way due to inexperience as a head coach or lack of success on a Power 5 level. The SEC and ACC have the CFP appearances and National Championships to show for these rankings whereas the Big Ten has Ohio State as the only legit CFP contender from the conference right now. It will be interesting to see if the Big Ten can live up to these rankings come playoff and bowl season 2021.