The paper estimates the key determinants of compensation for head football coaches in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision (the former D-IA) during the years 2006- 2010. Coaching compensation is regressed on variables capturing a coach’s personal characteristics, productivity, and institutional characteristics. The results yield seven important explanatory variables. Four are coach specific: BCS ranking, recruiting success, lifetime winning percentage, and years of experience. The remaining three are institutional: football revenue, enrollment, and graduation rate. No estimate of a compensation function for a head football coach has appeared previously in the literature.