The decision to promote Hubert Davis as Roy Williams’ successor seemed inspired after North Carolina went all the way to the national championship game in Davis’s debut, eventually losing to Kansas in a battle of college basketball blue bloods.
Since then, however, the Tar Heels’ results have come in short of expenses and expectations.
That UNC could miss the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years has raised serious questions about Davis’s ability to keep this program among the nation’s best. At $3.75 million in total compensation for the 2024-25 season, Davis is the highest-paid coach at a public university in the ACC — without the recent results to show for this investment.
The list of the sport’s most overpaid coaches begins with Davis, who is in danger of becoming just the second UNC coach since 1975 to miss the tournament twice in the span of three seasons.
Hubert Davis, North Carolina
Winning twice in the ACC tournament could get UNC into the 68-team field and take some of the heat off Davis amid another forgettable season. But the administration and fan base expect much more, of course, and it’s hard not to compare Davis’s struggles to get things off the ground with the way Duke’s Jon Scheyer — hired one season after Davis — has the Blue Devils surging toward a No. 1 seed in this year’s bracket. Davis will be under extreme pressure to deliver in the regular season and postseason in 2025-26.
Bobby Hurley, Arizona State
Hurley has three NCAA Tournament appearances in his decade at Arizona State and now six losing seasons, capped by this year’s extremely disappointing 13-17 finish. In a make-or-break year for Hurley’s job security, the Sun Devils finished one spot from the bottom in the new-look Big 12 and failed to win more than one league game in a row after posting solid non-conference victories against Grand Canyon, St. Thomas, New Mexico and Saint Mary’s. They lost in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. Hurley earned $3.54 million in compensation this season.
Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska
The Cornhuskers’ late-season collapse from firmly inside the bracket to off the bubble entirely erases the good vibes from last year’s tournament appearance and raises the temperature on Hoiberg’s seat heading into the 2025-26 season. The former Iowa State and NBA coach has the support of his athletics director and remains popular with the fan base, so Hoiberg will be given the chance to turn things around. But at 80-108 overall and with just one tournament bid in his six seasons — and this year’s team finishing third from the bottom in the Big Ten — the returns on the program’s investment haven’t been there. Hoiberg ranks fifth among Big Ten coaches in compensation at $4.75 million, including a one-time payment of $500,000, as part of a contract that runs through the 2029 season.
Jamie Dixon, TCU
The most recent document related to Dixon’s salary, from the 2022 calendar year, showed the TCU coach making $4.1 million, including bonuses. That compensation would rank fifth in the Big 12 in 2024-24, behind Kansas’s Bill Self, Baylor’s Scott Drew, Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson. That’s lofty company for a coach who has four tournament bids since behind hired in 2016 but has yet to get TCU out of the opening weekend. After making three appearances in a row, this year’s team flirted with the bubble before ending the regular season with four losses in five games, including a dreadful road loss to Colorado, to sit at 16-15 entering the Big 12 tournament. TCU lost, 69-67, to Colorado in the opening round.
Fran McCaffrey, Iowa
Give him credit for longevity: McCaffrey has been at Iowa since 2010, winning one Big Ten tournament title, posting eight 20-win seasons and making seven trips to the NCAA Tournament, though the Hawkeyes haven’t advanced past the round of 32. But Iowa has been on a recent slide, winning 19 games in 2022-23, another 19 games with an NIT appearance last year and bellyflopping at 16-15 and in a tie for 12th in the Big Ten this season. McCaffrey is making $3.4 million this season.
Follow colleges reporter Paul Myerberg on social media @PaulMyerberg
