Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian denies The Athletic report on $55 million payroll

Earlier this week, The Athletic listed the Texas Longhorns as one of the highest-paying programs in college football with a payroll of approximately $45-55 million.

But "that is inaccurate," Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian said during his Thursday weekly Zoom session with reporters.

"I think The Athletic and different outlets, I guess, do valuations on players of what they think players are worth and/or not worth," Sarkisian said.

According to The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times Company, the outlet "worked to get as many independent, trustworthy estimates as possible from people inside and outside a program: those who broker the deals, direct the teams from the sidelines on Saturdays and watch the games from luxury boxes."

The Athletic also stated that it contacted at least one employee from each school "to give them an opportunity to offer information about their roster budgets."

The reporters' research estimated that Texas, Ohio State and Oregon had the most money available for player payment this season among all Power Four conference schools and Notre Dame. Ohio State had an estimated $49-54 million while Oregon boasted an estimated $48-54 million, joining Texas at the top of the list.

Eleven of the top 20 spenders are in the SEC, compared to six in the Big Ten.

But to Sarkisian's point about the inaccuracies of estimations, none of the available funds for players is public information. Sarkisian, who spent three seasons of his 26-year coaching career in the NFL, says he would support publicly releasing salaries if everyone followed the same disclosure rules, like teams do in professional sports.

"I'm all for it if everybody wants to submit all of their contracts to a general source like you do in the NFL, and everybody has access to the contracts, how they're written, how much each player's making, what are his bonus structures, so on and so forth," he said. "But I think we've got to be cautious in that if that's not what we're doing, and we're just making subjective guess-timations, then we take them as reality. I think that's the part that's a little bit disappointing."

Sarkisian's salary – he makes $10.8 million this season – along with that of every other coach at a public university is public. But Sarkisian said that until players' salaries are also public, "we've got to move with a little bit more caution to take everything as true."

"We're really the only ones that know what our roster's worth, and LSU only knows what their roster's worth, or Ohio State, Oregon, so on and so forth," he said. "What is everybody's roster worth or not worth? I think that's where we have to move with a little bit more caution and discretion."