Eleven Warriors

Telling that while Monte Kiffin (USC) was #1 and Clemson's Chad Morris was #2, the next four highest-paid assistants all have one thing in common:

The next four highest-paid assistants are defensive coordinators from Southeastern Conference schools: Alabama's Kirby Smart ($950,000), LSU's John Chavis ($911,250), Auburn's Brian VanGorder ($875,000) and Georgia's Todd Grantham ($825,000).

Smart has received $100,000 increases after each of the past two seasons, and Chavis' compensation is contractually set to rise to $1.1 million in 2013.

I doubt anyone is surprised.

While Clemson appears to have the fattest budget for assistants, the rest of the big eaters include some familiar names: "LSU's assistants also are collecting more than $4 million. Seven other schools have assistants totaling more than $3 million in compensation: Texas, Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Oregon, Florida State and Oklahoma State."

So that means the SEC has three of the top paid staffs, the ACC has two, as does the Big 12, while the Big Ten and PAC-12 had one apiece.