Championship success has landed Indiana's Curt Cignetti a record-shattering deal after the Hoosiers' historic national title run. He's making more than $13 million a year now, one of just three coaches to make that much. LSU's Lane Kiffin and Georgia's Kirby Smart are the others
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For the third time in two years, Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti is getting a raise. And after winning the school's first football national championship, he's now one of the highest-paid coaches in the country.
According to reports in the Indianapolis Star and Bloomington Herald-Times, Cignetti's salary is jumping from $11.6 million to $13.2 million per year through the remainder of his contract, which runs through 2033.
Cignetti signed a six-year deal with Indiana worth $4.5 million annually in November of 2023 but then got a new deal in 2024 worth $8 million over eight years after Indiana went 11-2, the most wins in school history. Their only losses were to Ohio State and Notre Dame, who played each other in the national title game.
And then in 2025 when the Hoosiers started out unbeaten and other high-profile coaching job were coming open, Indiana's administration locked in Cignetti with another huge deal. That's where the $11.6 million came from.
But in that new contract signed in October, there was language include that allowed for bonuses and pay raises for the Hoosiers' success, with a review done at the endo of the season.
Indiana had a perfect 12-0 record in the regular season, beat Ohio State for the their first undisputed Big Ten title since 1945 and then swept through three playoff games — beating Alabama, Oregon and Miami — to claim the national title.
Cignetti's new deal places him in elite company with LSU's Lane Kiffin and Georgia's Kirby Smart as the only three college coaches with average salaries of $13 million or more. The language in Cignetti's deal specified that he would be paid among the top-three coaches in the country if he reached the College Football Playoff semifinals or more.
Indiana's commitment to spend more money on football the past few years has been paying off. According to reports, their $81 million in football-specific revenues was a school. record. When the numbers for 2025 all get added up, it was blow that 2024 number out of the water.
Cignetti, 64, has been named National Coach of the Year by multiple agencies each of the past two years.