Gene Wojciechowski: Alabama is the 3rd best college coaching job after Texas, ND

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The football gods grant you one wish: You can coach any NFL or college team in the country.

Here's your top-10 cheat sheet (with five honorable mentions thrown in for free):

2. University of Texas
When they hand you the coaching keys to the Longhorns football program, you get the most expensive car on the lot.

According to research done at Indiana-Purdue University Columbus, Texas' football program is worth $805 million -- more than the Forbes-calculated value of the Jacksonville Jaguars ($770 million), St. Louis Rams ($780 million) and Oakland Raiders ($785 million). In other words, the Longhorns aren't sweating the $5.35 million salary they pay Mack Brown. Or the $25.9 million (U.S. Department of Education figures) they spent on the program in 2011.

If you can't win at Texas, then you ought to consider another profession. The school and Austin are drop-dead gorgeous. You usually get first pick of the state's lonnnnnng list of quality recruits. And it doesn't hurt to have your very own Longhorn Network. Every conceivable advantage awaits.

4. Notre Dame
The Packers of college football. Or are the Packers the Notre Dame of the NFL?

The point is, Brian Kelly has shown what happens when you correctly leverage the power of your football brand. Notre Dame has its own TV network, a national recruiting network, 125 years of football tradition and facilities that rival or exceed its peers. The diploma means something, too.

As always, it's about getting players -- and ND's academic standards can eliminate some prospects. As does the winter weather. It is a program with high visibility, high expectations and its share of quirks.

But when properly operated, it is also a formidable program.

6. Alabama
It doesn't have the prettiest campus, the best stadium or the most populous recruiting base. But what it does have is an aura, a houndstooth history deep in championships. "Roll Tide" isn't a saying, it's a way of life. You either believe or you don't.

Bama isn't for everybody. Nick Saban has succeeded there because his intensity and expectations somehow exceed those of a fan base that doesn't take L's for an answer.

No athletic department spends more on its football program ($36.9 million in 2011) than Alabama. You are given every tool in the box to win. If you do, you become a coaching icon (and very, very rich), as Saban has become. If you don't, you become an appetizer on Paul Finebaum's radio show.

7. LSU
Surprised? Don't be.

In the cutthroat SEC, there's a lot to be said about an LSU program that almost always gets the best players in the recruiting-rich state. Plus, the Tigers can cherry-pick in Texas, Alabama and, of course, Australia.

Les Miles might be called the Mad Hatter, but he isn't stupid. He did his square dance with Arkansas, but at the end of the day, he knew LSU could show him the money and give him the best opportunity to win a national title. Plus, there are few places where football matters more than at LSU.

9. Florida
Have you ever spent any quality time with Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley? I have. He basically spends every waking moment trying to figure out how to help his coaches win.

You need better facilities? He'll do everything he can to make it happen. You need an increased budget for recruiting? For assistant coaches? For support staff? For whatever? Talk to Foley.

Foley is demanding, but the results on his watch have been nothing short of spectacular. So, yeah, you probably want to work for him if you're a football coach interested in a national championship.

And did I mention there are about a gajillion quality recruits in the state? And that from a financial standpoint, Florida football revenue and overall program value easily overshadow that of Florida State and Miami?

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