From the gridiron to gridlines. It all kicks off tonight as the College Football Playoff gets underway with 9-seed Alabama taking on 8-seed Oklahoma. While the spotlight will be focused squarely on the field, let's take a look at the finances of the teams aiming to bring home this year's championship. Overall, the 12-team bracket carries plenty of heavyweight wallets, with this year's postseason featuring the country's two highest-paid coaches and four teams with the largest budgets in the sport. On the flip side, you have James Madison and Tulane, two teams whose finances pale in comparison to the other schools they're up against. For Tulane in particular, if they can take down Ole Miss in their matchup on Saturday, they'd then face Georgia, who's paying its head coach Kirby Smart more this year than Tulane's entire recent program budget. Some notes on the numbers: Both revenue and expenses have been pulled from the 2023-24 school year. This is due in part to programs reporting their numbers differently, and with reporting often lagging behind, the 2023-24 figures are currently the most complete set available. 📸 : Getty

From the gridiron to gridlines. It all kicks off tonight as the College Football Playoff gets underway with 9-seed Alabama taking on 8-seed Oklahoma. While the spotlight will be focused squarely on the field, let's take a look at the finances of the teams aiming to bring home this year's championship. Overall, the 12-team bracket carries plenty of heavyweight wallets, with this year's postseason featuring the country's two highest-paid coaches and four teams with the largest budgets in the sport. On the flip side, you have James Madison and Tulane, two teams whose finances pale in comparison to the other schools they're up against. For Tulane in particular, if they can take down Ole Miss in their matchup on Saturday, they'd then face Georgia, who's paying its head coach Kirby Smart more this year than Tulane's entire recent program budget. Some notes on the numbers: Both revenue and expenses have been pulled from the 2023-24 school year. This is due in part to programs reporting their numbers differently, and with reporting often lagging behind, the 2023-24 figures are currently the most complete set available. 📸 : Getty