Sam Pittman got his first job as a Division I offensive line coach more than 25 years ago, at Northern Illinois. He and his wife, Jamie, packed up their small home in Hutchinson, Kansas and moved into a two-bedroom duplex in DeKalb, Illinois. His annual salary was about $41,000.
Three years later, the young offensive line coach had worked his way up to the top rung of the sport, a prestigious program in a Power Five conference: Oklahoma.
"I made $60,000 and I thought I was rich," recalled Pittman, now the head coach at Arkansas.
Today, of course, most Football Bowl Subdivision programs are led by multi-millionaires, many of whom will make more money in bonuses than Pittman made in his first year at Oklahoma in 1997.