Nebraska didn’t break the bank when it promoted Barrett Ruud to the newly created tenth assistant football coaching position, but it didn’t keep the vault locked either.

Since early January, Division I college football programs have been officially allowed by the NCAA to expand their on-field coaching staff from nine to ten. And in a time of year typically marked by coaching staff turnover and a fluid job market, the rule change has added to the hiring frenzy and salary negotiations.

While some powerhouse programs went all out to fill that tenth position with big money, fat perk packages, and all the usual benefits, other schools made a more modest financial commitment, relatively speaking, that is, for college football.

“At the very top, a handful of schools with money to spend were trying to hire the absolute best, while a lot of schools offered (more modest) deals” in the $100,000 range, said Scott Roussel, a longtime college football coaching observer with Footballscoop.com.

What about Nebraska? How does the Ruud hiring stack up with the rest of the Big Ten, other big-time football programs, and even some smaller mid-level conference schools in terms of salary and filling a staff need? Are athletic departments adjusting to the supply and demand?

To answer those questions, HuskerOnline interviewed football coaching experts, surveyed all the conference schools on their hiring plans, requested and reviewed publicly available coaching contracts, monitored hiring announcements from programs around the country, and compared USA Today’s December 2017 database of assistant football coaches’ salaries to see how the dollar signs stack up.

Start with this: Ruud, the Lincoln native and former Cornhusker linebacker star with a distinguished National Football League pedigree, came on board with a $200,000, two-year contract that runs through 2019. He will coach inside linebackers and has recruiting responsibilities with in-state high schools.

Before returning to Lincoln, Ruud was a quality control administrator for two years on Scott Frost’s staff at the University of Central Florida. His 2017 employment agreement with Central Florida was not disclosed by the school’s athletic department. (Ruud earned $825,000 with the Houston Texans in his final season in the NFL.)

But it should be safe to assume that Ruud got a bump in pay, as did all the other Central Florida assistants who followed Frost to madhouse red Memorial Stadium. As a staff, Nebraska ranks near the top ten in terms of assistant coach salaries, according to USA Today’s latest data.

In the Big Ten, Ruud’s paycheck puts him on par with Iowa’s newest assistant and is higher than what Wisconsin is paying its newest hire, but it is slightly lower than what Michigan, Minnesota, and Rutgers paid. Purely in terms of dollars, Ruud’s contract is not in the same league as the new hire at Ohio State.

At $200,000, Ruud is the lowest-paid assistant on Frost’s staff. But, keep in mind that Scott Booker -- the lowest paid assistant on former head coach Mike Riley’s staff -- earned $100,000 last year (Booker had a June 15 to Jan. 31 temporary contract).

New Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos said he’s been impressed with all of Frost’s coaching staff selections.

“We provided Scott Frost with a pool of $5 million to compensate his full-time assistant coaches and strength coaches,” Moos said in a statement to HuskerOnline. “The pool is very competitive to other Big Ten and Power 5 schools and puts us in the upper echelon in the country.”

“Scott has the discretion of how to allocate that money, and determined the salaries for the individual coaches,” Moos said. “I can tell you Scott has an outstanding staff across the board.”

The longtime college football administrator, who held down A.D. jobs at Oregon and Washington State, also addressed supply and demand issues affecting hiring and pay in the coaching ranks.

“I would guess if the assistant coaching turnover was higher-than-usual this year it was directly related to the large number of head coaching changes at high-profile Power 5 schools,” Moos said. “College football is a competitive game, and at Nebraska, we intend to compete at the highest level. In order to do that, you have to put together a great staff and compensate them appropriately, and we have positioned ourselves to do that at Nebraska.”

But when it comes to coaching carousels, the compensation line in the sand seemingly moves ever higher. “The whole profession is pretty fluid right now,” Roussel said. “Some schools just don’t want to commit to hiring the guy in the tenth slot yet because someone else on their staff might be leaving.”

That’s why Roussel believes a lot of private side deals are going on, as in “we’d love to have you if something opens up.”

Across the Big Ten, 11 schools so far have announced the hiring of a tenth assistant. In addition to Nebraska, those other schools are Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Rutgers, Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Northwestern, and Indiana.

As of this posting to HuskerOnline.com, staffing searches are still ongoing at Purdue, Maryland, and Illinois.

Athletic departments have taken different approaches in the hiring process. Some schools went after big names and seasoned veterans in the assistant coaching ranks, while other schools stayed in-house and promoted people in football recruiting and quality control positions to newly created on-field assignments.

Then there are schools that have not yet hired the tenth coach because they are still trying to fill vacancies in multiple other assistant positions.

Compare the two schools that played in last season’s Big Ten Conference champion game -- Ohio State with Wisconsin.

Ohio State shelled out $800,000 to hire Alex Grinch, formerly Washington State’s defensive coordinator. Grinch’s specific duties under Urban Meyer haven’t been disclosed yet, although he’s rumored to be in line as co-defensive coordinator. At Washington State, Grinch earned $600,000.

Wisconsin went in a different direction. The Badgers promoted Jon Budmayr, formerly Wisconsin’s offensive quality control coach, to the newly created position of quarterbacks coach under a contract that pays him $150,000.

Here’s the rundown on other conference schools:

*The Iowa Hawkeyes plucked their tenth coach, Derrick Foster, from Samford University, a Football Championship Subdivision program. The former Samford running backs coach will coach offense at Iowa, though specifics have not yet been disclosed. His preliminary contract, as provided by the university, pays him $200,000.

*Minnesota promoted Joe Rossi to defensive line coach after serving as a quality control assistant in 2017. Rossi will be paid $220,000, the athletic department said.

* Rutgers is paying Toby Neinas $215,000, the school confirmed. Formerly the Scarlet Knights’ director of player personnel, Neinas will coach special teams and outside linebackers.

*Michigan State recently hired Don Treadwell as its tenth coach. He will handle special teams, assist with defensive backs and serve as a “head coach” for freshmen players. While Treadwell’s new salary hasn’t been disclosed, he earned $146,676 last year as Kent State’s offensive coordinator.

*Penn State has rebuilt its coaching staff during the off-season after several coaches left for other jobs. However, it stayed in-house by promoting Phil Galiano from an off-field assignment to the newly created position of special teams coach and assistant defensive line coach. Citing a state law, Penn State declined to provide Galiano’s salary information.

*Michigan hired Sherrone Moore to coach tight ends. He reportedly will be paid $225,000 to $250,000 annually for two years, according to Footballscoop.com. Moore joined Michigan’s staff in mid-January after four seasons at Central Michigan.

While Northwestern and Indiana have filled the tenth slot, neither school has released contract information. In fact, Northwestern, as a private institution, won’t disclose salary of new running backs coach Lou Ayeni; an Indiana spokesman said the contract for linebackers coach Kane Wommack should be released soon. Ayeni earned $300,000 last year at Iowa State, while Wommack was paid $147,780 at South Alabama, according to USA Today data.

A word about Illinois. The Illini just hired Cory Patterson as tight ends coach. Patterson, who previously was head coach at Trinity Catholic High School in the St. Louis area, received a two-year contract at $220,000 per year, said athletic department spokesman Kent Brown.

However, Brown was hesitant to classify Patterson as the tenth coach. There are still two other open coaching positions to fill on defense, he said, and “the actual new position will likely be linebacker.”

Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama may still be in flux, but other Power 5 schools have brought on their tenth man.

Oklahoma, for example, enticed Shane Beamer to leave Georgia to become the Sooners’ assistant head coach for offense. Of course, a 45 percent pay raise certainly helped -- going from about $300,000 for one year at Georgia to $435,000 annually for two years at OU.

Texas also opened its wallet to hire Herb Hand as co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Although salary details are not yet available, Hand is certainly getting a bump in pay from the $420,000 he earned at Auburn.

Arkansas, which has a new head coach, spent a record $4.35 million to fill its assistant coaching staff -- a figure that one school official described as being “fair and comparable to the rest of the SEC.” That includes a $225,000, two-year deal for tenth coach Mark Smith.

As for Scott Frost’s former employer, new Central Florida head coach Josh Heupel is still filling out his staff. “A decision could come in the next week or two,” said Andy Seeley, a Central Florida spokesman.

Then there are the smaller -- but mighty -- programs, such as Ohio University and Northern Illinois.

At Ohio, Tremayne Scott was the tenth assistant to join former Nebraska head coach Frank Solich’s staff. Scott was added as the second defensive line coach, and will specifically coach defensive tackles. His compensation was not disclosed.

Northern Illinois, which upset Nebraska in Lincoln last season, has begun interviewing for the tenth assistants’ position, but has not yet filled it, said spokeswoman Donna Turner.

Steve Rosen writes about the business of sports for HuskerOnline. Questions, comments, story ideas? Reach Steve at sbrosen1030@gmail.com.