Breaking Down Curt Cignetti’s Indiana Contract

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Written by: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

On November 30th this year, Curt Cignetti was officially announced to have agreed upon a deal to become the next head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers football program. Yesterday, we officially saw the memorandum of understanding (MOU), which is a formal document generally signed in advance of a larger contract. MOUs are typically more general in their terminology before the firm details are ironed out in the official contract. This did give us our first look at what Cignetti’s contract will look like, however, and today we will break that down.

The thing that stands out the most about Cignetti’s contract is how heavily incentive based it is. At its most basic, the deal is a six-year contract that will pay him $27 million between December 1, 2023 and November 30, 2029. $500K of this deal is Cignetti’s annual salary, while the rest of the payment each year will come in annual outside, marketing, and promotional income (OMPI). This figure will start at $3.5M and increase by 100K each year of the contract. All of this is relatively standard and will make up the base yearly salary of the deal. 

What makes Cignetti’s contract interesting, though, are the incentives attached on top of this salary. 

First, Cignetti will receive an annual retention bonus equating to $250K each year on November 30th; as long as he is not relieved of his coaching duties, Cignetti will tack on an additional $250K each year. 

My favorite part of the contract comes next, and it involves the incentives surrounding team success. Anytime Indiana makes a bowl during his tenure, a 1-year extension is added to the length of the contract, $250K is added to his OMPI, and $500K is added to the budget for football staff personnel. Bowl appearances (non-College Football Playoff) also trigger an automatic $200K and an additional $50K if the bowl is won. It’s an interesting clause to the contract; it benefits Indiana in that the more success Cignetti is able to bring for the team, the longer his contract and further the investment in the coach will go. And for Cignetti, he has shown to have no shortage of confidence; I’m sure he is thinking of this as almost “free money” that he expects to be given year after year. The $500K added to the budget for football staff personnel should also greatly help either a) retaining potential stud assistant coaches that are being poached from other schools or b) hiring great replacements to continue the success.

Cignetti’s contract also will have incentives tied to success in the greater college football landscape. In the Big Ten Conference, Cignetti will receive a $100K bonus for five Big Ten wins and $150K for six Big Ten wins (not cumulative). If the Hoosiers finish in the top six (6th or higher out of 18 teams) in the Big Ten, he will receive a $250K bonus. A second place finish would award a $500K bonus, while a Big Ten Championship would earn him $1M.

Going even further into the college football landscape, not just the Big Ten, Cignetti would receive the following bonuses for College Football Playoff finishes:

  • CFP First Round Appearance: $500,000

  • CFP Quarterfinal Appearance: $600,000

  • CFP Semifinal Appearance: $700,000

  • CFP National Runner-Up: $1,000,000

  • CFP National Championship: $2,000,000

And finally, Cignetti can receive bonuses if his performance is a head coach is recognized by the national media. If he is awarded Big Ten Coach of the Year by either the coaches or the media, he will receive a $50K bonus. And if he is awarded coach of the year honors nationally (Associated Press, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Sports News, Walter Camp, Maxwell Football Club, or ABC/ESPN), he will receive a $100K bonus.

And for those wondering about potential buyout obligations for the university (though hopefully these will not be needed), they are as follows; If Indiana wanted to terminate Cignetti before December 1, 2024, they would owe him $20M. That number falls by $3M each year afterwards, always on December 1st. Indiana would owe Cignetti that money paid in equal monthly installments across the life of the contract.

All in all, the contract seems like a massive win for both sides. Indiana gets their big-name coach with a high-caliber contract, and Cignetti has a solid deal that will only get better if he delivers the success that he envisions to the program.

Keep following along with Hoosier Huddle as we continue to highlight each new development of the Curt Cignetti era at Indiana.