Curt Cignetti is now one of the most well-compensated coaches in college football.
Just four months after signing an eight-year extension with Indiana that brought a substantial pay raise, the Hoosiers are upping his salary once more, coming off the school's first football national championship in 2025. Per the Indy Star, Cignetti inked a deal through 2033 that will pay him an average salary of $13.2 million per year.
Cignetti joins Georgia's Kirby Smart and LSU's Lane Kiffin as the only college football coaches with a $13 million salary for 2026. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day made $12.5 million in 2025, the second-most of any coach behind Smart.
Cignetti achieved the greatest two-year turnaround in the history of college football in his first two years at Indiana. The Hoosiers went from one of the worst historical programs in the Big Ten and a 3-9 record in 2023 to an 11-2 mark with a College Football Playoff appearance in 2024 to the sport's first 16-0 season since 1894, a Big Ten title and national championship in 2025.
Across two years with the Hoosiers, Cignetti's overall record is 27-2. He is 146-37 (.798) for his career as a head coach.
