Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the salary of Penn State coach Joe Paterno (along with some other Penn State administrators) is public record. Yawn! Who cares, right? Well, while this doesn't matter much at the moment how much Paterno is being paid, it might matter when it's finally time to replace JoePa as figurehead head coach.

When the figures finally come out, it's pretty obvious Joe won't be one of the highest paid coaches in college football. As Run Up The Score points out, "the salaries of the head coach, assistant coaches, and support staff totals $2,795,417 for the 2007-2008 year." So, Paterno's probably making a little under $2 million per year, right (btw, we have no clue how much assistant coaches make, so that figure is coming out of our ass)?

But with Paterno's contract up after next season, it's unclear how much longer he'll stick around. He has made no indication that he's ready to retire and he would probably like to go into the 2008 season with a contract extension in place. But when he finally does move on, it's clear that Penn State is going to have to really increase coaching salary to lure a big name to Beaver Stadium.

The Sporting News tells us that  Nick Saban is now the highest paid college coach, making $4 million a year at Alabama, with Bob Stoops at Oklahoma making over $3 million and coaches like Jim Tressel (Ohio State), Urban Meyer (Florida) and Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) making $2 million per year. So, will Graham Spanier (and the Nittany Lion faithful) be willing to pay $3-$4 million per year for another coach?

Or we could just give the job to Jay Paterno.