ESPN

Professional football is the most lucrative coaching field, according to Forbes, which has released its top 10 list of highest-paid coaches in sports.

Bill Belichick tops the list for the second year in a row following the retirement of Phil Jackson, the only coach to have ever made an eight-figure salary. Belichick is believed to make $7.5 million per year. Doc Rivers is the highest-paid NBA coach at $7 million.

Sean Payton would have made the list at $7 million if not for his suspension.

No Major League Baseball or National Hockey League coach made the list. The highest-paid MLB coach is the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Scioscia, whose 10-year, $50 million contract gives him an average salary of $5 million per year. Forbes has never reported on the highest-paid NHL coaches.

NFL and NBA head-coaching salaries are driven in part by escalating college coaching salaries. A college head coach’s salary is more complicated to compute than a professional coach’s, because pay can come from a variety of sources, from the university to athletic foundations to shoe and apparel companies. Experts say only approximately 25 percent of a head coach’s salary is paid directly by the university.

According to information compiled by USA Today, the average college football coach at a public university made $2.1 million in 2011. Texas’ Mack Brown led the list at $5.2 million, but Alabama’s Nick Saban will become the highest-paid college football coach in 2012 with a salary of $5.3 million.

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