With his new contract, IU head football coach Curt Cignetti not only gets a pay raise, but contractual assurances of program stability and financial competitiveness.
The Daily Hoosier obtained a copy of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Cignetti and IU outlining the contract, via public records request. This deal runs eight years, tacking on an additional year to the last contract the parties executed in November 2024.
Cignetti will make a total of $11.15 million for the first year of this new contract, spanning from December 1 through November 30, 2026. That includes his base salary ($500,000), annual outside, marketing, and promotional income ($9.65 million), and a retention bonus ($ million). The outside, marketing, and promotional income will increase by $100,000 in each subsequent year of the contract, and the retention bonus goes up to $1.25 million beginning in 2029.
His income from his last contract increased by $200,000 each year, but at lower figures, obviously.
The deal also contains verbiage to ensure Cignetti’s pay will remain among the best in the country, so long as the team remains strong. Starting this season, IU and Cignetti will complete a “good faith review and negotiation of Coach’s compensation within 120 days after the Team appears in the CFP (or surviving system) Semi-Final game.” And if, after that review, the sides don’t agree to updated compensation for Cignetti that would put his income among the top three among active FBS head coaches, all buyouts Cignetti would owe upon resignation would be voided.
Bonuses
The performance-related bonuses in Cignetti’s new contract are the same as the bonus structure in his previous deals with IU:
- $100,000 for winning five Big Ten games in a season, or $150,000 for six Big Ten wins.
- $250,000 for a top-six finish, $500,000 for a second-place finish, or $1 million for a Big Ten championship.
- $200,000 for a bowl appearance that isn’t part of the College Football Playoff, with an extra $50,000 if IU wins that bowl game.
- $500,000 for a College Football Playoff first-round appearance, $600,000 for reaching the quarterfinals, $700,000 for reaching the semifinals, $1 million for reaching the national title game, and $2 million for winning a national championship.
- $50,000 for winning Big Ten Coach of the Year, whether through the coaches vote or the media vote.
- $100,000 for winning any of the major National Coach of the Year honors (AP, the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award, Sporting News, Walter Camp, Maxwell Football Club, or ABC/ESPN).
Staff and player pools
The Nov. 2024 contract came with $11 million for Cignetti to allot to his on-field staff and support staff salaries. That vaulted Indiana among the top programs in the country for highest-paid assistants.
This new deal does not necessarily increase that figure, but it does include verbiage to ensure the program remains competitive in that regard. The MOU states, “The University shall make every reasonable effort to provide a competitive Staff Pool … to retain and acquire talented assistant coaches, strength coaches, operations staff, and support staff.”
More specifically, that “reasonable effort” means a contractually-obligated good faith market review anytime IU’s staff pool drops below fifth-highest in the Big Ten or 10th-highest in the country.
Cignetti’s last contract didn’t contain any information about money for players, as revenue sharing had not yet come into play at that point. This time around, that’s become a factor. And per the MOU, athletic director Scott Dolson will meet with Cignetti “at least annually to review any available data to ensure that the football program remains competitive both nationally and in the Big Ten in this area of program support.”
Buyouts
Cignetti’s salary isn’t the only thing that increased with the new contract.
If IU fires Cignetti without cause, the university will owe him 100 percent of the money remaining on the contract, paid in monthly installments. The previous deal initially put that at 85 percent, but it increased to 100 percent with IU’s College Football Playoff appearance last season. Additionally, Cignetti’s deal from 2024 included a responsibility to mitigate by seeking comparable employment to offset the buyout; this contract doesn’t include that responsibility, but the buyout would still offset if he took a head coach or assistant coach job — either in college or the NFL — during the contract’s term.
Cignetti’s buyout to the university if he resigns before the contract’s expiration decreases every year. If Cignetti resigns between Dec. 1, 2025 and Nov. 30, 2026, he’d owe IU $15 million. The figure in ensuing years is as follows.
- Dec. 1, 2026 through Nov. 30, 2027: $12 million
- Dec. 1, 2027 through Nov. 30, 2028: $9 million
- Dec. 1, 2028 through Nov. 30, 2029: $6 million
- Dec. 1, 2029 through Nov. 30, 2030: $4 million
- Dec. 1, 2030 through Nov. 30, 2031: $2 million
- Dec. 1, 2031 through Nov. 30, 2032: $1 million
- Dec. 1, 2032 through Nov. 30, 2033: $0
Those amounts will drop by 50 percent if Dolson or university president Pam Whitten are no longer serving in those positions at the time of his resignation.
Additionally, Cignetti’s previous contract set his buyout figures for any resignation, regardless of reasoning. This MOU specifies those buyouts to be owed if he resigned “to accept employment as a head coach or assistant in the collegiate or professional ranks.”
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