- College football coaching contracts often include unusual clauses beyond standard performance bonuses.
- Large, lump-sum buyout payments, like Mark Stoops’ potential $38 million, can make firing a coach financially difficult for a university.
- Other unique contract terms include bonuses for scheduling tougher opponents and specific press conference requirements.
The conventional wisdom when discussing player and coach contracts is they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
Well, this isn’t a player’s contract in the NFL, where some players can be cut at a moment’s notice without seeing a penny moving forward. In college athletics, every dollar direct deposited into a coach’s account is scrutinized to the point where, if said coach is on the hot seat, buyout talk commences.
A closer look into the contracts of many college football coaches reveals a variety of standard clauses tied to winning conferences, national titles, and even raises based on the team’s academic performance. But that’s not what we are doing here.
Here is a look at some of the stranger and more interesting clauses in college football coaches’ contracts, and a hat tip to the agents who got athletic directors to sign off on them.
Next job, secured: Kyle Whittingham, Utah
While a handful of elite college football and men’s basketball coaches have rolling, so-called “lifetime” contracts, Whittingham, who is 65 years old and making $6.925 million this season, won’t need to dip into his savings if he decides to retire. The day he lets the powers that be in Salt Lake City know he is giving up his headset, Utah will give him a post-retirement job as a special assistant to the athletic director.
If he does so after this season, the arrangement will be for two years at $3.45 million annually. But, depending on whether Utah plays in the Big 12 championship game he has to decide by Dec. 5 or Dec. 12.
If he retires after a future season, he would be set to receive a payment of more than $2 million and a five-year special-assistant deal at $995,000 annually.
Hostess sweets need not apply: Dowell Loggains, Appalachian State
This refers to the scheduling of cupcakes, which fills September schedules, and can be found with regularity in the SEC before rivalry weeks. When it comes to Loggains, his contract stipulates he will receive a $20,000 bonus if the Mountaineers play a guarantee game against a Power Four opponent. The Mountaineers are scheduled to take on NC State in 2026 and 2028, and South Carolina in 2027 and 2029.
Home is where they say it is: Jim Mora, UConn; Jeff Monken, Army
Boosters paying for coaches’ housing is not uncommon. The Crimson Tide Foundation paid off former Alabama coach Nick Saban’s house in 2013, even though Saban was making more than $7 million per year at the time and could easily afford the mortgage. Mora’s contract includes an amendment, signed in April, that covers the use of a house that is owned or leased by the university but eliminates a golf club membership. The total amount of $54,000 will be paid in monthly installments of $4,500 until April 2026.
While most coaches have a say in where they reside when they are hired, that doesn’t apply to Monken, who is required by his contract to stay in a house furnished by the Army West Point Athletic Association.
Nothing is free: Eddie George, Bowling Green; Mike Uremovich, Ball State
Athletic departments will do all kinds of things to get a particular candidate to coach at their school. Usually, that includes paying money to the coach’s previous employer to cover the buyout the coach owed for terminating his contract to take another coaching job. In the case of Bowling Green and Ball State, those schools fronted the buyout money as loans to George and Uremovich. And in both cases, repayment is occurring through regular payroll deductions.
First impressions are important: Matt Drinkall, Central Michigan
On Dec. 8, 2024, Central Michigan hired Drinkall from Army, where he spent six seasons as an assistant. At the time of his hiring, Drinkall hadn’t finished his duties with the Black Knights, as they still had a game left against archrival Navy the following weekend. In his memorandum of understanding, Drinkall was required to hold an introductory news conference on either Dec. 9 or 10. If he failed to do so, he would owe the university a $500,000 penalty, an amount that would have eaten up nearly all of his $610,000 he was scheduled to be paid for this season at that time. Needless to say, Drinkall was front and center on campus in Mount Pleasant, Mich., on Dec. 10 to talk to the Chippewas fan base.
USA TODAY Sports reporter Steve Berkowitz contributed to this story.