Curt Cignetti’s post-CFP payday, NFL jobs and the latest in college football’s coach carousel
The Athletic has live coverage of Oregon vs. Indiana in the 2025 College Football Playoff semifinals.
The college head coaching carousel has come to a stop … for now. But history says that’s likely going to change. Below, we get into that, the impact of the NFL coaching carousel, Dan Mullen’s decision to stay at UNLV and Marshall Faulk’s unique contract at Southern. But first, some news around the College Football Playoff.
Another raise already for Curt Cignetti
Less than three months after Cignetti signed a new contract at Indiana that included a big raise, he has already earned himself another one.
As reported in October, Cignetti’s new contract included a clause that states if the Hoosiers make a CFP semifinal during the contract, Indiana is required to make a good-faith review and negotiation of Cignetti’s salary into the top three in college football, within 120 days of the game. If not, the buyout for Cignetti to leave Indiana would drop to zero. Now Indiana is in the Peach Bowl semifinal, so that clause has been triggered.
That new contract in October raised Cignetti’s average annual salary to $11.6 million, putting him right around the top three — only behind Georgia’s Kirby Smart ($13 million) and Ohio State’s Ryan Day ($12.5 million) among 2025 salaries. But since then, Lane Kiffin went to LSU with a contract that pays him an average of $13 million, dropping Cignetti back outside the top three.
This type of clause has been used at least once before: Nick Saban had a clause at Alabama to remain among the top five highest-paid coaches. It turned out to be a shrewd move by Cignetti’s representation. Wins over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game and Alabama in the Rose Bowl have put the Hoosiers two wins from a national championship, a truly incredible run for a coach who was making $677,000 at James Madison three years ago.
Indiana’s 38-3 Rose Bowl win drew more than 23 million viewers on ESPN, higher than four of the last five national championship games. The Hoosiers are the betting favorite to win it all, and fans are into the Indiana story. IU alum Mark Cuban hadn’t donated to athletics until Cignetti was there, and he just cut another check, he told Front Office Sports. What the coach has done in two years is remarkable.
Cignetti’s contract is also relevant for our next topic.
How will the NFL coaching carousel impact college football?
The end of the NFL regular season has brought the annual slew of head coach firings. As of Friday, the Dolphins, Browns, Cardinals, Falcons, Giants, Raiders, Ravens and Titans have openings.
Industry sources don’t expect those NFL teams to hire a college coach in this cycle. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman remains an NFL target, but Freeman announced last week he is returning to the Fighting Irish. With a really good team coming back next year and a favorable schedule, the Irish will be expected to make the CFP and make a run, and Freeman’s interest from the NFL isn’t expected to waver. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian pushed back against reporting in the fall that he was interested in the NFL, but his interest has been talked about in industry circles for years.
What about Cignetti? ESPN’s Peter Schrager said this week every NFL team with an opening should call Cignetti, and it became a debate topic across various shows. The Raiders have the No. 1 pick, meaning pairing Cignetti and quarterback Fernando Mendoza could be on the table.
However, Cignetti’s buyout to leave Indiana in the next year is $15 million (presuming Indiana renegotiates his deal as mentioned above). That is a big cost. For some NFL teams, paying a college buyout is a non-starter, one coaching agent told The Athletic. The Raiders are already tens of millions in the hole for having fired head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly after one season. Additionally, Cignetti’s new salary at Indiana would rank in the top 10 in the NFL. To hire Cignetti, an NFL team would probably have to commit more than $50 million.
That is also all under the assumption that the 64-year-old Cignetti would want to coach in the NFL, which we do not know. He has already said he plans to retire at Indiana.
Over the last 10 years, just three college head coaches have been hired to first-time NFL head coaching jobs. Urban Meyer didn’t make it a full year with the Jaguars. Matt Rhule was fired in his third season with the Panthers. Kliff Kingsbury had an OK run with the Cardinals, but he got that job right after he was fired at Texas Tech in an unusual move up. (Jim Harbaugh had already been an NFL head coach before going to Michigan, then the Chargers.)
“I’ve never talked to Curt about the NFL, I don’t really know that he has interest in doing that,” Saban said Wednesday on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “It is a fairly difficult transition to go from college to the NFL if you’ve never been in the NFL before. When I took the Dolphins job, I’d been in the NFL for six years, so I understood it.”
Several college coordinators are expected to leave for NFL jobs, as happens in most years. It’s also possible that sitting head coaches could leave for NFL assistant jobs, as Jeff Hafley did by leaving Boston College for the Packers defensive coordinator job and Scot Loeffler did by leaving Bowling Green for the Eagles in recent years. Hafley is now an NFL head coaching candidate. Which brings us to the next point.
Is the college head coaching carousel over?
College head coach openings typically fill up by late December, as was the case this year, but there are almost always later moves and surprises before kickoff of the next season. Just look at recent history.
2024-25: All jobs were filled by Dec. 28. Then, Loeffler left Bowling Green in February, Stanford fired Troy Taylor in March, and Kent State fired Kenni Burns in April.
2023-24: All jobs were filled by Dec. 18. Then, Saban retired in January, creating openings at Washington, Arizona and San Jose State. Harbaugh and Hafley left for the NFL in January, while Kelly left UCLA for an Ohio State assistant job and Shawn Elliott left Georgia State for a South Carolina assistant job in February. Both Kane Wommack (South Alabama) and Maurice Linguist (Buffalo) left for Alabama assistant jobs in February as well. In July, Jeff Tedford stepped down at Fresno State due to health issues, and Utah State fired Blake Anderson.
2022-23: All jobs were filled by Dec. 19. Northwestern fired Pat Fitzgerald the following July.
Some other moves in previous years: UAB coach Bill Clark retired in June 2022. Kansas fired Les Miles in March 2021 and hired Lance Leipold. Mark Dantonio retired at Michigan State in February 2020, and MSU hired Mel Tucker. Baylor fired Art Briles in May 2016. Todd Monken left Southern Miss in early 2016.
Odds are there will be another head coaching change before the 2026 season begins. Any late changes in this cycle could be more detrimental than in years past, too, as there is no spring transfer portal window. The single January window installed this year means the vast majority of players will have made their decisions to enroll in the spring semester.
Will a TBD school have a surprise coaching change and find itself in a bad position?
Why Dan Mullen stayed
Last October, before the coaching carousel really got moving, Mullen did something unusual for a coach in his position: He announced at a press conference he would be back next year.
There was no vagueness, even to try to create leverage for a new contract amid a good season. When someone later tweeted that Mullen would take the Arkansas job, Mullen replied that he had zero interest in Arkansas and that the Hogs should hire Gus Malzahn.
0.0 interest in Arkansas. Thanks for the shout out though. Y’all need to hire Gus Malzahn.
— Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) October 17, 2025
Ahead of the Frisco Bowl last month, I sat down with Mullen and asked him why he did that. He described himself as someone in a different position. For one, he’s already been at a top job at Florida and gone through that experience. Two, his Florida buyout pays him $12 million from late 2021 into 2027, with no offset from his salary at another job, so he’s got that money coming in, he likes his job, and he feels no need to rush.
“Football’s been really good to me in life,” he said. “I really enjoy the city of Las Vegas. I really enjoy coaching this team. This time last year, we had 15 players and three coaches. I really enjoyed it. I was very happy with it all and where I was as a coach. You could say the reason to leave is money. In the end, that’s the reason at this school or that school.
“How the system is set up, if we would’ve beaten Boise (State in the Mountain West championship), we would’ve had an argument against James Madison for the College Football Playoff, so we can accomplish a lot of things here. For me, where I was mentally and as a person, I’m very happy with my situation. I got a lot of calls over the years. I got calls throughout this year to go other places. It’s something that felt right about it inside, and I’m happy.”
Mullen didn’t get enough credit for taking UNLV to a 10-4 record and a conference championship game appearance after having to build an entirely new roster. At the time of our conversation, quarterback Anthony Colandrea had announced he would return to UNLV in 2026. When I asked Mullen about that, the coach knew that wasn’t set in stone. And indeed, Colandrea entered the portal this month and has committed to Nebraska.
Colandrea won’t be back, but all-conference running back Jai’Den Thomas will be. Mullen’s decision to announce his plans so publicly helped his standing within the team, which has helped this offseason.
“Everyone gives the coach answer,” he said. “One thing for me at this stage, it affects recruiting and your kids, who want to know about the program. That gets back to the timing. There’s no one in the NFL worried their coach is going to leave before the playoffs. If our kids are reading that, they wonder if I have one foot out the door. I wanted to make the kids know I’m very happy here and I plan on being here. That gives a lot of ease to the guys in the program of comfort that I’m going to be here.”
Marshall Faulk’s Southern deal can get him a cut of new fundraising
Faulk, the former NFL running back, is the new head coach at Southern University after spending one year as an assistant at Colorado. Faulk’s deal at Southern is for three years and is worth $400,000 annually, one of the highest salaries for an HBCU school.
The contract, obtained by The Athletic, also includes a unique clause about fundraising: For any new fundraising initiatives separate from current efforts, Faulk gets a cut.
Per the contract, “Head Football Coach will receive twenty (20%) percent of the total amount raised which can be used as additional income for himself, ii. twenty (20%) percent to the marketing company that is associated with head coach, iii. Fifty (50%) percent may be used towards recruiting, travel, equipment, salary supplements for assistant coaches, support staff, tutors, or other such personnel to assist the football program or for any other purpose within the discretion of the Head Football Coach, and iv. Ten (10%) percent to The Athletic Department.”
In order to receive that incentive, the team must have an Academic Progress Report score of at least 930 and be eligible for the postseason.
